Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hot Rod really didn’t know what he expected when he started this journey. Sure, he expected some problems, maybe a fight or two, even an attempted murder; but ending up in a cell in an alternate dimension surrounded by Decepticons in a facility run by humans was not on that list of possibilities. He’s sure even Perceptor wouldn’t have expected such a thing.

Still, here he was, in a facility run by this company called “GHOST”; which stood for something; being stared at by humans. And glared at by Decepticons. Not that the latter really bothered him. He was used to it.

Two humans suddenly jumped, hands moving to their ears as they listened to something. They both looked at Hot Rod. “We… only have one spare cell ma’am. No, a strange Autobot… No clue, haven’t had time to contact them. Okay Ma’am… Yes, we understand. Yes Ma’am.” One of the humans sighed, heavy and annoyed. He glared at Hot Rod, “You really fucked everything up here. Unfortunately for you, you’re going to be getting a roommate.”

Hot Rod shrugged. “So long as it’s not Megatron, I’m good with it. If it is Megatron, I’d suggest you let me move in with someone else. Exceptions to that being Starscream and Shockwave. Especially Starscream.”

Hot Rod heard the familiar bark of laughter from the mentioned Decepticon, “Aww, is the poor little Autobot scared of the big bad Decepticon Second-in-Command?”

Hot Rod looked over a few cells, spotting both the mentioned bots. “Nah, not scared. I just figure some of these guys would be upset about you two being replaced with a pile of ash.”

Shockwave actually looked over now, single optic flashing in shock. Starscream also looked surprised, like he really didn’t expect Hot Rod to say that. “Did… Did you just threaten to deactivate us?”

“Yes.”

Starscream hummed, casting a glance to Shockwave. “Well… That’s new.”

Hot Rod chuckled, “What? Never been threatened by another bot before?”

“Not an Autobot.”

Hot Rod smiled. He was proud of himself. Of the few things he picked up from Soundwave, dealing with Decepticons was the best. Most Decepticons were all bark no bite and so long as you were willing to back up your actions, most would back down.

Most

Hot Rod knew from experience – and observations – Soundwave was not a bot who was willing to back down.

Starscream smirked, his usual annoying smirk that meant he was plotting something. “Well, in good news you don’t have to worry about Megatron, that traitor.” Starscream’s hissed words were met with a collection of shouts and grumbles from the rest of the Decepticons about Megatron being a traitor and being a pile of slag or scrap. “But, you should be worried. After all, why would you need a cellmate if there’s still one cell open?”

Hot Rod paused, scanning the room for the first time since arriving. Sure enough, directly behind Starscream; at least from Hot Rod’s perspective; there was an empty cell. Hot Rod began looking closer at the Decepticons around him; some he could identify, others he could not. He paused, realizing there was one bot who might need two cells.

Hot Rod couldn’t help but laugh. “Soundwave?! You’re going to put me with Soundwave?” Hot Rod struggled to control his laughter, earning more stares of shock and surprise from the Decepticons as well as the humans. “Ah, he’s been giving you major problems with Laserbeak, that’s why you need two cells? Look, far be it from me to tell you how to run your prison, but that’s just going to make him mad. Laserbeak is family and the one bot he trusts…” aside from me “… So taking Laserbeak away is going to cause bigger problems.” Hot Rod could hear the Decepticons talk amongst themselves, glancing at him before going back to whispering. Starscream was once again staring at him in shock before shaking his head and turning away.

The humans just stared at him for a minute before rolling their eyes and turning away from him. Hot Rod would let them learn their mistake the hard way. He’d just make sure Soundwave didn’t kill anyone. That was the best he could offer.

--------

Hot Rod was jolted out of his rest by yelling. A lot of yelling. And growling. Growling that he was very familiar with, despite the voice sounding slightly different. He onlined his optics just in time to see a bot that was rather angular in a very familiar shade of blue. Said bot ignored him, either because he didn’t see Hot Rod sitting in the back of the cell or because he really didn’t care; either way, Soundwave turned around after being shoved into the cell and started slamming his fists into the wall-door-thing.

Megatron and Optimus were on the other side of the door-wall-thing, Optimus glaring at Soundwave while Megatron carried a cybercat, microbot, and Laserbeak to the cell behind Starscream; who was leaning against one of the walls just watching Megatron with that stupid smirk.

“What? What is he doing in here?! Get him out!” Optimus seemed to have finally noticed Hot Rod.

Soundwave snapped to look at Hot Rod. Despite his glowing visor, Hot Rod could see him glaring in utter disgust and anger. “What are you doing in my cell?!”

Hot Rod stayed sitting, looking up and down Soundwave.

“Well?!”

Hot Rod shrugged, “Two confirmed, theoretically three.” Hot Rod took out a datapad, crossing out two numbers and adding one to each. The datapad was simple, only two boxes, one labeled “Confirmed” and one “Theoretical”. Hot Rod shoved the datapad into his subspace just in time to avoid Soundwave from grabbing it. “Sorry, had to do that before I forgot. Anyways, I’m in your cell because they,” Hot Rod pointed to the humans, “decided I was dangerous and shoved me in here.” Hot Rod shrugged, turning his attention back to Soundwave. “Not much I can do about it.”

Hot Rod could see this Soundwave’s confusion, subtly shaking his head to replace it with anger; “and that datapad?”

Hot Rod chuckled, “You’re blue.”

Soundwave stared at him, as if expecting him to expand on that. When Hot Rod didn’t, Soundwave decided to just huff and go back to glaring at Optimus Prime.

Megatron returned to in front of Hot Rod’s cell, having shoved the three other bots into the empty cell. He looked worried, glancing between Soundwave, Hot Rod, and the humans. “Shouldn’t you…” He sighed, “Of all the bots to stick with an Autobot, you decided this was the best choice?”

“Those cassettes are a pain, and likely would have manipulated this Autobot.” A woman with grey hair came out of a small door. The guards immediately jumped to attention. She was clearly important. She turned to glare at Soundwave, “Soundwave here has made no effort to redeem himself or improve the behavior of his little minions…” Soundwave growled at this, “…And because Ravage keeps getting out, we’ve decided it best to separate them. Furthermore, since Frenzy resembles a young Cybertronian; and we know how kind you Autobots are; we decided it best to put Soundwave with this Autobot.”

“This Autotbot has a name, and it’s Hot Rod. I am Hot Rod, not a random Autobot.” Hot Rod stood at this, dusting himself off to approach the door-wall. At least as much as he could with Soundwave refusing to move and glaring at him. “Aside from that, I’m not even going to stay here forever. Seeing as how everyone important is here, I suppose I should tell you why I’m actually in this universe.” The woman looked at him, skeptical.

“This Universe?” Optimus parroted, tilting his head slightly.

Hot Rod smiled and crossed his arm, leaning against the wall; “I’m from a different universe. I have a small crew and our goal is to travel the multiverse to warn other universes about the Quintessons.”

Optimus cast a glance at Megatron before turning back to Hot Rod, motioning him to continue.

“They’re a race of giant squid and shark things that travel the multiverse deciding if a universe is guilty or not. What qualifies as guilty? No clue. Their leader is called “The Scientist” and he likes to collect…” Hot Rod looks at Soundwave, looking him up and down. Hot Rod saw the subtle jump from Soundwave; as well as the flicker of horror behind his visor. “Yeah. His favorite is blue ones. Apparently in the trillions of Quadrillions of universes he’s traveled to, he’s never been able to collect a blue one.” Hot Rod shrugged. “But yeah, they also like to use the Allspark and Cybertronians as fuel. And the Scientist doesn’t judge the universe; he makes a Judge to judge the universe.” Not the most graceful delivery, but this was the first time he’s had to tell another universe about the Quintessons.

Soundwave suddenly barked out a harsh laugh, “you expect us to believe that?” He pointed an accusatory finger at Hot Rod.

Hot Rod rolled his eyes. “I didn’t lock up your family in a separate cell. I don’t even know these humans. But, I’d like to offer you an olive branch – as the humans say.”

Soundwave back off, surprise clear behind his visor. He tilted his head, clearly listening to what Hot Rod wanted to say.

“In my universe, the Autobots and Decepticons have a peace treaty, one that I plan to honor no matter what universe I’m in…”

“A foolish choice.”

“So, seeing as how you aren’t welcome here, I’d like to formally invite all of the Cybertronians currently being held prisoner to the Guiding Light; the ship I captain; in our mission to mitigate the Quintession threat!” Hot Rod spread his arms wide, smiling brightly. He could see everyone staring at him in shock, Autobot and Decepticon alike.

“We…” Soundwave looked back toward Starscream and Shockwave, “We must think on this.”

Hot Rod smiled, lowering his arms and returning to his seat at the back of the cell; “No worries, you have quite some time before we decide to leave.”

---

Hot Rod didn’t know what he expected when he finally arrived at Earth. All of his friends acting weird and looking at him strange, and the two adult humans avoiding him and crying a lot was not on his list of “things to expect”.

It wasn’t until he snuck into the security room that he learned why: An alternate version of him showed up in this world, brought all the Decepticons onto his ship, and then left this universe with the Decepticons, The Terrans, and the human children.

The Terrans and the humans had snuck onboard the ship to plant little cameras everywhere to spy on them. He applauded their attempts to help. He took to watching the videos they all recorded, starting with the kids being found.

<< RECORDING 1, PLAYING NOW>>

“WHAT THE SCRAP?!” Starscream could be heard screaming down the hall. Followed by other, much more high-pitched screams. A lot of them. Hot Rod watched as his alternate self turned away from the huge monitor-table-thing. The Camera had to be placed on a wall or something, judging by the angle.

“AUTOBOT SCUM!”

Hot Rod watched in horror as the door slid open, the children running inside and hiding in corners of the room as Soundwave blocked their way further down the hall outside the door. Soundwave stormed into the room, slow and deliberate, just as Starscream came sliding into frame, out of breath and looking around the room, presumably at the children. “Are you brats the reason for those idiots trying to stop us?!”

The Other Hot Rod looked around the room, counting. He frowned. “Who are you guys? And why are you on my ship?”

“They’re Terrans and their human… things.” Soundwave hissed, crossing his arms. The Other Hot Rod sent him a look, but didn’t comment on the remark; rather he turned back to the kids, nodding at them.

“We work with the Autobots!” Twitch.

“Yeah! You broke the Decepticons out, and are planning to invade another universe!” Hashtag.

“Bee taught us how to fight! We’ll stop you!” Thrash.

The Other Hot Rod tilted his head, looking at Thrash, presumably. “Bee? As in Bumblebee?”

“Uh… and Grimlock!” Jawbreaker.

The Other Hot Rod smiled, finally uncrossing his arms; “While I appreciate your bravery, it’s not needed. The Guiding Light was founded on a peace treaty between Autobots and Decepticons. These aren’t even the first Decepticons we had on this ship.” The Other Hot Rod was so calm, leaning casually against the table-thing, like he wasn’t in standing between a VERY angry Soundwave and the targets of his anger. The Other Hot Rod even had his back turned to Soundwave and Starscream, just begging to be shot in the back.

“Well… They were talking about poisoning you and taking over the ship!” Twitch suddenly yelled, pointing at Starscream, who just glared at her.

“We were discussing poisoning him and taking over the ship.” Starscream clarified. As if it actually made a difference.

The Other Hot Rod chuckled; “Oh yeah? And how exactly were you planning to do that? I know better than to accept Energon from other bots.” The Other Hot Rod stopped leaning on the table-thing, turning so he could look at both the kids and the two Decepticons. Finally, a shred of self-preservation. “Besides, poisoning? That’s a little too predictable, even for you. Now, throwing my out an air lock while we’re traveling through unspace? That’s creative!”

NEVERMIND

Hot Rod slammed his face into his servo. This other version of him was giving the Decepticons ideas on how to kill him.

“But also, killing me would piss off Clobber, Whirl, Dead End, and Perceptor. Particularly Dead End and Perceptor. I do not recommend that.”

A rather sleek, red mech walked past the door at that moment, drinking Energon and looking at a datapad. Hot Rod heard the mech choke and saw him back pedal into frame, optics wide as he stared in the room.

“What, in the name of the Allspark, are those?”

“Oh, Dead End! Meet the Terrans!”

“That explains nothing.”

>>         >>

Hot Rod watched countless recording, watching as the Autobots that started on the ship got… friendlier with the Decepticons they sprung from prison. As well as pick up more bots from various universes. He was fully aware of the way The Other Hot Rod was gazing at his Soundwave. Hot Rod shook his head. His processor kept doing that. Calling the Soundwave from his universe his Soundwave. It was annoying. He hated it. Sure, that Soundwave was from the same Universe as him, but that didn’t mean Soundwave belonged to him.

Hot Rod vented, calming his systems of the rage brough on by himself. The sound of a door opening startled him. It was on the recording. The Other Hot rod and his Soundwave were entering the room, it seemed as though a party was going on outside. What the party was for, Hot Rod didn’t want to know. The Other Hot Rod was stumbling and slurring his words, clearly he drank too much Engex.

Soundwave sighed as he propped The Other Hot Rod up on the table-thingy, the red bot nearly sliding off as soon as Soundwave let go.

“Frenzy, please go and get some coolant for this idiot.” As soundwave spoke, his chest compartment opened, a cassette popping out before transforming into a microbot. “Laserbeak, Ravage, make sure no one steps on her.”

“Hey!” The microbot hissed as two more cassette popped out and transformed, one into a bird and another into a cat.

Soundwave tilted his head in a way that conveyed his annoyance as clear as day, “A good majority of those bots are as drunk as, if not more drunk than this idiot here. I am not taking any chances.”

“Is that a sparkling?!” The Other Hot Rod squeaked, finally looking over at Frenzy. He then looked at Soundwave; “Are you sparked? Did you just give birth?”

“Get. The. Coolant.” At Soundwave’s command the three microbots took off as fast as possible, the door sliding shut behind them. Soundwave sighed again, looking back at The Other Hot Rod; “You are drunk. Be quiet.”

The Other Hot Rod giggled, wrapping his arms around Soundwave’s neck in a hug, and leading forward. Hot Rod saw Soundwave stiffen, shifting back. The Other Hot Rod pulled away, giggling again; “I love you. I really do…” The Other Hot Rod started crying, hugging Soundwave tighter. “You died in my world, and I never got to tell you how much I love you. I really, really love you…”

Frenzy, Ravage, and Laserbeak returned at that moment, a small container of coolant in Frenzy’s servo. She’s just staring in confusion. Soundwave turns to look at her. “Don’t… I don’t know what is going on.” Soundwave sounded genuinely confused.

The Other Hot Rod started wailing; “You died because I was incompetent! I’m so sorry I’m so stupid and an idiot!”

Soundwave sighed again, head falling back. “Forget the coolant. Got to the room. I’m taking this moron to his room.”

“You sure you don’t-”

“Please, just go. I don’t think you even can help with how drunk he is.”

The three microbots left, followed by Soundwave slowly dragging The Other Hot Rod out of the room, leaving the recording in darkness once again.

Chapter Text

Soundwave couldn’t grasp it. He had been furious over being dragged back to that stupid prison. It was made worse by his family being locked up away from him, Megatron finally spilling how he was able to cause so much chaos.

Megatron really was a traitor.

Soundwave never should have put his trust in Megatron.

Of course, then there was the Autobot. That stupid Autobot who didn’t fear him, who didn’t shy away from him, who was smiling, who wanted to help, and who was sincere.

Soundwave shook his head.

Sure, he was on that stupid Autobot’s ship, along with the rest of the Decepticons, but that didn’t mean they were going to do nothing. He was sure Starscream was already scheming, as he usually did.

Some part of Soundwave wanted to stop him, warn the Autobot about Starscream’s possible plans and keep him safe.

Soundwave hated that.

Many of the Decepticons thought he could read their minds, but no. The rest thought he could read emotions, but that wasn’t true either. His ability was a lot more basic… He could tell when a bot was lying to him.

It was so simple, but it came in handy as the third-in-command and the one in charge of communications.

But it also made Megatron’s betrayal hurt that much more. Megatron had been sincere at one point. But by the time the incident happened… Soundwave had stopped paying attention to what Megatron was saying or thinking. Had he even been sincere when he said it was a great loss?

But that brought Soundwave back to the problem with the Autobot. He had been so sincere about his offer to take them out of the prison and out of the universe that hated them. He had been sincere about calling Soundwave’s family his family. He had been sincere in his warning about the Scientist, and the Quintessons. Everything Hot Rod said was true. More importantly, he was sincere.

He told them the only rules of the ship as soon as they left the universe:

• Do not mess with the Engine. No one had any idea how it worked, and they’d rather keep it functional.
• Do not mess with the dimensional device (Multiverse Drive). The majority of the original crew has either seen or been trapped in “unspace” at least once, and they don’t want to inflict that horror on Clobber.
• Be nice to Clobber. She is doing her best. Being nice to her involves NOT ordering her to kill other bots. It hurts her feelings if you ask her to do this.

Three rules. Not even anything about not killing the captain or anything. Nothing about not hacking into the security system and watching everyone at every hour. Nothing about staying out of the vents to get past locked doors. Nothing about privacy or preventing blackmail. Hot Rod was really way too trusting. He had given them free reign of the ship after announcing those three rules, as well as giving them all a map to show where the habsuites were and what each room was.

Shockwave, unsurprisingly, went right for the labs. Apparently, he’d be spending a lot of time with Perceptor while there. Starscream was likely wandering the halls, trying to think of where to hang pictures of himself and how to convert the supports into statues of himself.

“WHAT THE SCRAP?!”

Starscream’s shrill voice cut Soundwave free from his thoughts, more shrill screams following and drawing closer. Very familiar voices… the Voices of Megatron’s new “team”.

Pests, pests, all of them pests. They should be eradicated, why do they get to live and be a happy little family?! It’s not fair… he was turned to scrap metal to repair others and they get to fly around and be happy little

“AUTOBOT SCUM!” Soundwave growled as the Terrans filthy disgusting mockeries, all of them came around a corner and into his line of sight. He would kill them, he had to kill them.

They didn’t deserve to be happy. Megatron didn’t deserve to be happy. Maybe Megatron would realize once he felt the same. But it wouldn’t be the same, because it was

The Terrans fled back the way they had come from, clearly forgetting that Starscream was in that direction for a minute, before darting into a room. Glancing at the map briefly, Soundwave realized it was the Multiversal Map Room. Apparently, Hot Rod had decided to dedicate an entire room to just displaying a map of the multiverse so far. Somehow that made sense.

Soundwave stalked into the room after the Terrans. Aside from Hot Rod, the Terrans, and a huge table with a very strange hologram above it, the room was empty. All of the Terrans were hiding in the upper corners of the room, trying to be as far from Soundwave as possible. Hot Rod was looking at them, clearly confused.

“Are you brats the reason for those idiots trying to stop us?!” Starscream’s voice was preceded by metal screeching against metal, not that there was much difference between the two noises.

Hot Rod was frowning now, counting the smaller bots. He looked genuinely concerned. “Who are you guys? And why are you on my ship?”

The sincerity of his question had Soundwave’s spark breaking. He really didn’t know what was going on. He really thought the Autobots had just decided to lock the Decepticons up in a hellish science prison for no reason. “They’re Terrans and their human…” Hot Rod was looking at him now, “…things.”

Why had he called them that? They were inferior. They were Earth-born microbes. They could be crushed by accident, and yet… The look Hot Rod sent him was one of genuine confusion, but he stayed silent, opting to look back at the Terrans. It was like Hot Rod didn’t care what Soundwave said. Not in the same way Megatron didn’t care, but more like he just accepted that this was as nice as he got. Soundwave could feel Starscream staring at him in disgust, as if he had never been tolerant of the humans.

Hot Rod was talking to the Terrans now. He was completely ignoring Soundwave and Starscream. He was brave, and his trust was so sincere…

Megatron trusted him like that once. Before all the power, before things went wrong. His family trusted him like that once too, before the incident. The incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident…

“They were talking about poisoning you and taking over the ship!” That stupid drone yelled, pointing a stupid and accusatory finger at Starscream.

Starscream, for his part, scoffed, “We were discussing poisoning him and taking over the ship.” Who this “we” was Soundwave didn’t know. But clearly multiple bots had contributed to it. Hot Rod would throw them off now though, or at least lock them up.

Soundwave looked up at the chuckle that came from Hot Rod. He wasn’t even aware he had started looking at the floor. The laughter was genuine… sincere. He wasn’t scared, he found it funny.

“Oh yeah? And how exactly were you planning to do that? I know better than to accept Energon from other bots.” Hot Rod turned now, no longer leaning with his side against the monitor. He was looking at Soundwave and Starscream, mostly Starscream; and he was smiling. “Besides, poisoning? That’s a little too predictable, even for you. Now, throwing my out an air lock while we’re traveling through unspace? That’s creative!” He laughed again, before sighing, “But also, killing me would piss off Clobber, Whirl, Dead End, and Perceptor. Particularly Dead End and Perceptor. I do not recommend that.”

Soundwave had no idea who Dead End was, but if he was with Perceptor, he must be a common visitor to the labs.

A sudden choking noise had Soundwave turning around, just in time to see another red mech come into the doorway. He stared at the Terrans with what could only be described as abject horror. He also had the Decepticon insignia on his chest. “What, in the name of the Allspark, are those?” Soundwave refrained from laughing, Starscream was not so subtle though, letting out a snort before covering his mouth.

“Oh, Dead End! Meet the Terrans!” Hot Rod was smiling again. He wasn’t being sincere this time… Little shit was being sarcastic and playing games.

“That explains nothing.” The other red mech – Dead End, apparently – deadpanned. He was thoroughly unimpressed. “Did they sneak onto the ship?”

Hot Rod’s smile fell, he actually looked bored; “What do you think? Apparently these guys are the reason we were attacked while leaving.”

The sigh Dead End let out was dramatic enough to warrant an award. “So what? We just accept stowaways now?”

Hot Rod shrugged. “We are accidental kidnappers. I refuse to go back to that universe.”

Oh…. Oh that anger and disgust were sincere. Was Soundwave’s own home really that bad?

“Hey! You can’t do that!” That stupid drone femme yelled, flying up to Hot Rod to get in his face.

Hot Rod was unimpressed, grabbing her leg and dragging her out of the room despite her protests. “You come onto my ship without my permission, and you expect me to be nice to you because why? Because I wear the Autobot symbol? Actions have consequences, clearly your Bumblebee never taught you that.”

Soundwave had never seen an Autobot this annoyed before. They were going to the labs it seemed. Perhaps this could be fun.

“Percy! Get your blind aft out here!” Dead End had shoved open the door to the labs, yelling as loud as possible. Something flew at him and he dodged to the side, a glass vial filled with paint thinner shattering against the wall. “Nice try! You missed!”

“I’m blind not deaf! And I missed on purpose!”

Soundwave watched as another red mech Why were there so many red mechs? Was red everyone’s favorite color in that other universe?! Came out from behind a desk. His Optics were dark, and some sort of laser-sniper was mounted onto his shoulder.

“Our captain is right behind you, and I think hitting our guests would be a violation of the peace treaty. They are Decepticons, after all.”

Dead End gate the flattest, dryest, most sarcastic laugh possible; “Ha ha, very funny Percy. By that logic you’ve already broken the peace treaty.” Perceptor laughed in response, clearly seeing the comments as harmless fun. “Anyways, to the actual point: We have a couple of extra mouths to feed. Including some… humans.” Despite apparently having a peace treaty, Dead End still hissed out the word as if it was something far below him.

Perceptor sighed, “Yes, I can… Well, I can’t see that, but I can sense them.” Dead End nearly spit out his Energon, coughing out some laughter. “The other bots won’t be that hard, but we will have to stop at some Earth to get human food. We should also make Clobber aware that hugging them is not a good idea.”

Dead End sighed, setting his now empty cup of Energon on a counter. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. She has trouble controlling her strength with small, cute things.” He looked at the humans at this point, both of whom were clinging to one Terran each. “Ugly naked things.”

“To each their own.” Perceptor stated, giving a shrug.

“We’re not naked!”

“Or Ugly!”

Perceptor seemed to look at the humans now, as if his optics still worked. “… I am going to refrain from commenting.”

Oh…

Soundwave didn’t expect to meet an Autobot that thought Humans were ugly.

Chapter Text

Soundwave and the other Decepticons were learning a lot about the Autobots they were now stuck with. Everyone knew what that meant: He would hack into their systems, listen to all their comms, and just… Observe. Anything that needed to be reported on was going to be reported to those that needed to know.

He was surprised at the lack of cameras on the Guiding Light. There were plenty in the entrance area, the storage bay, and even the cafeteria; but the halls had minimal coverage, and there were none in any of the habsuites. That was fine though, that’s what his family were for. IF he still had them all it would be so much easier. Everyone tended to forget to look around when those

Soundwave shook his head. Once again, he was watching instead of resting. He needed to, needed to know what the whole deal with the Quintessons was. Most nights were quiet, leaving only him with mostly dark feeds and empty hallways. Tonight seemed to be different, as he got a ping that someone had activated some sort of connection.

It was to another Universe.

Soundwave excitedly sat up, connecting in without alerting either party that he was listening and watching.

Hot Rod was smiling at Bumblebee, but not the Bumblebee Soundwave knew.

“Hey Bee! How’s it going?”

“Fine, how’s your mission so far?”

“Slow start. We uh… Well, funny thing about that! We actually got more crew members!” Hot Rod looked nervous, shifting in his seat.

“Oh really? Who-”

“I swear to the Allspark, if you got in contact with that red moron and didn’t tell me I am killing you!” A femme from off-screen suddenly yelled.

Hot Rod looked startled, but smiled; Bumblebee just laughed, turning to whoever it was speaking. “You’re already plotting to kill me! IF you’re going to kill me than do it already! Stop talking about it!”

Soundwave couldn’t stop staring. Were all the Cybertronians from Hot Rod’s universe this unbothered by death? Didn’t they care about their own survival? Didn’t they get how terrible it was? Didn’t they get that once someone was gone you were never going to see them again and you realized

Soundwave took a deep breath. He needed to relax. The femme that had been yelling at the two suddenly came on screen, a Decepticon insignia clear on her torso. But… She looked like she was three bots cobbled together into one.

“You jerk!” The femme hissed, pointing an accusatory figure at Hot Rod.

“What did I do now?!” Hot Rod was laughing, but also looking nervous.

“If you ever come back, your eyes are forfeit.”

WHAT

“Oh, by order of who? You’re too busy killing Bee to bother with me.” Hot Rod replied, before straightening up as a hawk screech crackled through the call. “Hey Beaky.”

Soundwave watched as a version of Laserbeak dropped down from somewhere, landing easily on Bumblebee’s shoulder. Said version was glaring at Hot Rod, who now looked even more nervous than before.

“Listen, I know you wanted to come with us…”

SCREECH

“But you know, and I know this is really dangerous…”

SCREECH

“And I really wouldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to you…”

SCREEE-

“And I’m pretty sure Soundwave would hate me for all eternity if you died in some alternate universe!” Hot Rod yelled, panicked. Laserbeak straightened up at that, tilting his head as he looked at Hot Rod. “You know he’d be really mad, and probably say something like “You’ll pay for that!” or just blast music at me until time itself ceases to exist.”

The femme suddenly laughed, “Yeah, that does sound like something he’d do.”

Bumblebee laughed, “Plus, with you both being in the Allspark, it’s not like he could kill you… at least… I don’t think he could kill you…” Bumblebee looked to the femme suddenly, “Do you think you can die in the Allspark?”

Soundwave’s lines had long run cold.

He was dead.

He was dead in Hot Rod’s universe, and the only one left of his family was Laserbeak…

Frenzy… Ravage… Himself… RUMBLE… He was a failure in every universe, he failed, failed, failed, FAILED

Soundwave shut off the connection, servos flying up to grip his head. He needed to calm down. The ringing was back. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

Soundwave was snapped from his loop by a knocking at his door.

“Soundwave? It’s Hot Rod… I know you’re up.”

Soundwave took a deep breath, stiffly walking to his door, opening it just a crack. “WHAT.” It wasn’t a question, it was a demand. Hot Rod looked upset, face contorted in what could only be described as pity. He didn’t want some stupid Autobot’s pity, he didn’t deserve it. He was a failure no matter the universe, he was doomed to always kill

“I know you heard us. You have a bad habit of listening in to what other are saying.” A “bad habit”. That’s all Hot Rod saw it as? A “bad habit”?! “I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but… If it’s any consolation, you died a hero.”

Soundwave froze.

Hot Rod was being sincere again.

So, so sincere.

“What…” Soundwave reset his vocalizer, taking another deep breath and relaxing. “What… How did… The other me die?” A hero? For taking three innocent lives with him? Who in their right mind would see that as heroic?! He wasn’t a hero, he’d never be a hero, he was a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure.

“Well… It’s a little hard to explain but, to make a long story short…” Hot Rod looked uncomfortable, scratching at the pipes that ran down his arms, ruining the finish ever so slightly. “You saved all of Cybertron from… Well… Let’s just leave it at that. You saved all of Cybertron.”

Soundwave stared at Hot Rod. That was it? He saved Cybertron? “What about… What about them?”

Hot Rod looked confused for a moment, before seeming to realize what he was asking; “Frenzy and Ravage never existed in my universe. You only ever had Laserbeak to worry about.”

Hot Rod was being honest.

So, only this version of himself was a failure?

Chapter Text

Hot Rod hadn’t left Soundwave’s room after stopping by, opting to sit on the floor to rest and recharge. He also forced – or at least attempted to force – Soundwave to rest. Hot Rod clearly considered it an accomplishment to have Soundwave watch the monitors and cameras from his recharge slab.

Whatever.

Of course, clearly Hot Rod didn’t consider the possibility that Soundwave would wake up before him, and that with Hot Rod sleeping on the floor in front of his door, Hot Rod had effectively trapped Soundwave in his room.

Then again, there was the possibility that Hot Rod was aware of such a thing, because he was not all that surprised to learn that Soundwave had Frenzy sneak out through a vent and open the door from the outside, cause Hot Rod to fall over and wake up. Hot Rod certainly wasn’t pleased about it, but Soundwave was far too busy laughing at the noise Hot Rod made while falling over to care.

Hot Rod walked with Soundwave to the cafeteria, talking to Laserbeak and Frenzy as they walked. Hot Rod waved to Soundwave and his family as he ran over to join Clobber, Whirl, Perceptor, and Dead End at their table. The Cafeteria was so empty, and Soundwave couldn’t imagine being stuck with the same four people for all eternity.

Well…

Soundwave looked at Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Ravage. He had technically doomed himself to that fate, but they were his family. If he were stuck with Starscream, Shockwave, Megatron, and Breakdown… He’d sooner kill them than be nice.

Soundwave headed over to the energon dispenser. The rest of the Decepticons seemed confused and nervous. Energon usually came in cubes and was solid, but this kind… it was more like a liquid and they had cups. Soundwave looked to Ravage and Laserbeak. This… Would not work for them. It wouldn’t even really work for Frenzy. While said cups weren’t impossible for her to hold, they were just a little too big, and she’d likely end up covered in energon. Which would lead to her being angry and embarrassed, and then her hiding in their room for a week. Not fun. Best avoided at all costs.

Hot Rod seemed to notice Soundwave’s hesitation, standing from his spot and walking over; “Everything okay?” He was leaning forward with his arms behind his back.

Soundwave just stared at him. Why was he doing this? Why was he standing like that? Was he really so blind as to not see the issue with

“Oh…” Hot Rod looked at Ravage and Laserbeak, “We don’t have anything to hold the energon for them.”

“No, you don’t.” Soundwave hissed, putting as much anger and vitriol into his words as he could. They really just invited them onto this ship, that was so horribly ill-equipped for his family, and expected it to be fine?! How daft.

“Hey! Percy!” Hot Rod yelled over, causing the blind mech to look up; “Think you could ask Chop Shop to bring us some smaller cups, and also a bowl or two?”

Perceptor waved dismissively at Hot Rod, before going back to whatever the small group was talking about. Soundwave rolled his eyes, clearly they didn’t really-

The shriek that Frenzy let out as a blue pillar flashed next to the group had everyone jumping up. A huge mech appeared once the light dispersed, holding a crate. “Hi there!” The bot nodded to Hot Rod, who nodded back, and set the crate on a table, prying it open; “Perceptor said you needed bowls and smaller cups. Mind if I ask why?”

“We uh… We already have some more crew members, some of them-” Hot Rod didn’t get to finish as something flew out of the crate, perching on a rafter before letting out a screech. Hot Rod stared at the bird that was now sitting above him, staring. “Hi Beaky.”

SCREECH

Hot Rod let out a sigh that could only be described as “I cannot be bothered to care about this”, before looking at the bot. Said bot shrugged; “I really didn’t know he was in there.” Hot Rod remained silent, just staring at the bot. “Okay, so, maybe I did, but you need to understand! He’s very convincing!”

SCREECH

With another sigh, Hot Rod held out his arm, and the bird dropped down, smug. “Everyone, meet the Laserbeak from my universe. He’s going to get me in trouble with Shadow Striker. For fun. Because he’s a little jerk.” Hot Rod was glaring at the other Laserbeak, who looked more and more smug by the minute. That was one proud bird.

Soundwave watched as Hot Rod stood there, scolding the cassette-bot, who clearly couldn’t care one bit what he was saying. He was actually treating the Laserbeak from his world like he was important.

“Hey, Hot Rod, I’ve been meaning to ask something.” Hot Rod looked at the bot that had teleported to the ship, still unloading the bowls and tiny cups; “I would have asked Shadow Striker, but she’s really scary. So uh… Does Laserbeak actually understand what you’re saying, or did Soundwave just train him to understand certain words like-”

The bot didn’t get to finish, as Laserbeak launched from Hot Rod’s arm and proceeded to peck at the other bot, screeching the entire time.

“OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW! Point taken! You can understand us! Sorry Laserbeak!”

Laserbeak flew back to Hot Rod’s arm once the bot apologized, letting out a warble that might have been a laugh. Hot Rod gently scratched under Laserbeak’s chin; “As you saw, no, Laserbeak is not trained. He was Soundwave’s family.” Hot Rod paused, looking at Soundwave. “And, I suppose I make a proper introduction. Laserbeak, meet Soundwave, Ravage, Frenzy, and… Well, Laserbeak!”

The two Laserbeaks looked at each other, tilting their heads as they inspected the other. The perched one turned to look at Hot Rod.

SCREECH

“I understand, but you brought this on yourself.”

SCREECH

“No, I will not accept a formal complaint.” Laserbeak chirped at Hot Rod’s reply. Whatever conversation they were having, Soundwave could only imagine. “Anyways, seeing as how we now have bowls and smaller cups, your family should be all set!” Hot Rod smiled, looking at Soundwave before turning back to Laserbeak; “And I suppose you can stay, seeing as how you snuck on board… You’ll be helping Soundwave with security, we have had way too many bots sneaking onto this ship.” Laserbeak looked confused. As if Primus himself decided that confusing Laserbeak was too cruel, the Terrans and their humans entered the cafeteria, all of them looking exhausted.

“I’d say good morning but… I… Dooon’t…” Twitch started, only to stop as she stared. The others staring in silence as well. “I think I need to go back to sleep.”

“Hi little stowaways!” Whirl waved at the Terrans and humans, so chipper that you could almost imagine a smile on his face.

“Awww! They’re so cute! I wish humans weren’t so fragile.” The humans looked at Clobber with what could only be described as abject horror, ducking behind the Terrans as if the equally small bots could protect them. “Anyways, why do you guys need more sleep?”

“Well… I’m seeing two Laserbeaks.”

SCREECH

“That is because there is two.” Soundwave sighed. He was starting to regret boarding this ship.

Chapter Text

Soundwave had no idea how it came to this, but for some reason, now both Hot Rod and Laserbeak kept sleeping in Soundwave’s room. Laserbeak was perched on the chair by the monitors, while Hot Rod kept sleeping against the door.

Despite that, he still always seemed surprised when the door opened and he fell backwards as a wake-up call. Soundwave stood over Hot Rod this time, staring down at Hot Rod blankly; “Precisely what is the point of this?”

Hot Rod didn’t respond, just shimmied out from under Soundwave so he could stand up and dust himself off; “Nothing major. I just feel like doing it.”

Soundwave felt the twinge of a lie. It wasn’t a big lie, but something about Hot Rod’s answer wasn’t true. Soundwave looked at Hot Rod as he walked away. They had only been on this ship for about a week, and in this Universe for that week.

Soundwave didn’t pay much attention to what was going on outside, but he knew that he had yet to see a star. Or a planet. Or anything other than the vast void of space. Soundwave followed Hot Rod to the cafeteria, where most of the Decepticons were whispering to each other, pausing as Soundwave and his family entered.

He knew what those looks meant. The way they looked at him before glancing at Frenzy. Without any way to collect energy, they couldn’t manufacture Energon; without the ability to produce Energon, they’d have to ration. If they had to ration and he got into a fight, he wouldn’t be able to ask his family for help. They’d be too weak, they’d have to stay tucked in his compartment, safe from most weapons and asleep, but if he got too low it would happen again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again

Soundwave shook his head, grumbling to himself. He didn’t need their help; he could keep his own family safe.

“… So the sooner we leave the better?”

Soundwave looked over to Hot Rod, he was sitting with Perceptor, who had some graph on a datapad he was showing to Hot Rod. “Indeed. The chances of this thing being good for us is slim, if not impossible.”

The Graph was little more than a flat line with a sudden spike towards the end of it. Hot Rod nodded, studying the graph.

“You have no idea what any of this is, do you?”

“If you say it’s bad, then it’s bad.” Hot Rod shrugged, leaning back to give Perceptor space. “Where on the ship are the Terrans and their humans?”

Perceptor hummed, the graph disappearing from the datapad. It was then that Soundwave noticed said pad was plugged into a port on Perceptor’s wrist. A map of the ship showed up, the cafeteria almost completely red with how many dots were in it. The only other location of red dots was…

“THE ENGINE ROOM?!” Hot Rod shot up, inspecting the small map closely.

“Scrap, they are!” Perceptor tore the cord from his wrist; Hot Rod, Clobber, Whirl, Perceptor, and Dead End ran to the door; Hot Rod skidded to a stop before leaving fully.

“Soundwave! You’re in charge! Don’t let Shockwave blow up the ship!” Hot Rod disappeared once he was done yelling.

Everyone was looking at Soundwave. “What.”

Of all the rules to break, those brats picked that one. Rules one and two were actually pretty redundant. The Multiverse Drive was technically part of the engine, so any attempts to mess with the engine could result in actually messing with the Multiverse Drive; so the next time they made the jump to another universe, they instead ended up in Unspace.

Hot Rod had only ever really told Soundwave about the horrors of Unspace, how he saw himself and his friends disintegrate into nothingness, how he wasn’t sure he even belonged in that universe because he had no proof he was supposed to be there, and he had never asked the other Hot Rods what color their Soundwaves were because he didn’t think it would matter and he never paid attention-

“I swear to the Allspark I will play that stupid song on loop.” Laserbeak’s voice broke Hot Rod from his thoughts. That’s right, he had more pressing issues. “Like children in the Engine. Good news: I see them. More good news: They’re just looking.”

“Good.” Hot Rod breathed a sigh of relief, not that it was easy to tell with everyone running. “Keep an eye on them, and feel free to shoot them if they try to touch anything.” Hot Rod could just feel Laserbeak smiling.

“You got it!”

“Please tell me that flying thing is Laserbeak!” Perceptor huffed, turning a sharp corner, missing the stairs by leaping down them.

“It is! He’s making sure they don’t mess with anything!” Hot Rod took the same corner, sliding ahead of Clobber, surfing down the hand rail.

“Is it bad I’m hoping he critically injures one of those Terrans?!” Dead End jumped over Clobber, stumbling the landing as one of his heels got caught on a stair; “I have had ENOUGH of these children, and they’ve been here for all of a week!”

Whirl was still behind Clobber, the two finally catching up from their careful descent of the stairs; “I tend to agree! Apparently the other Decepticons really hate them too!” Clobber paused, moving to the side to let Whirl get ahead of her. “Something about them not letting the Decepticons go back to Cybertron!”

Hot Rod groaned; “Combine that with the torture and imprisonment at that research facility…” Hot Rod skidded to a top behind Perceptor, Dead End nearly crashing into him at the sudden halt. “Man, that universe really was the worst.” He looked back as Clobber and Whirl came to a much more controlled stop at the very back of the group.

“Hey, Hot Rod, if those research guys come for us and lock me up, you wouldn’t leave me there, would you?” Clobber questioned, sounding absolutely terrified at the mere thought of being found by GHOST.

Hot Rod shook his head, “I thought you knew me better than that! I never leave my friends behind.” He smiled at her, which calmed her down.

“Okay… Where’s Beaky?”

Hot Rod raised his pointer finger, “One moment…” “Yo, Beaky, where are you?” There wasn’t a verbal reply, instead Laserbeak sent a picture. “SCRAP.”

“They’re near the Multi-”

“YES!” Hot Rod shoved past Perceptor, interrupting Dead End, rushing down the catwalks to the Multiverse Drive. “YOU! STEP AWAY FROM THAT RIGHT NOW!”

Hot Rod watched as all of the kids jumped back, spinning to face him.

“We didn’t do anything!” Twitch yelled, throwing up her hands. She was flying and hovering dangerously close to the sensitive wires and machinery.

“Okay, I need you to land right now. If you break one of those wires, we could end up in Unspace and… And nobody wants that.”

“I’d listen to him if I were you.”

The kids gasped, looking to the other side to see Soundwave casually stepping out from the shadows. Soundwave was calm. His own Laserbeak perched carefully on his arm; tucked close to his chest; Frenzy hugging his leg, and Ravage sticking so close it was a miracle he didn’t trip.

“Why should we listen to you?!” Twitch yelled, hovering closer – fucking closer – to the sensitive wires and tubes.

“PLEASE stop flying! Land on the Catwalks, please.” Hot Rod’s spark was spinning fast. Twitch was putting them all at risk with her carelessness. He had wanted to help, and instead his stupid, careless, brash, unthinking-

“Twitch! Listen to them!” The little human girl whined, startling the flying Terran. Twitch looked at the little human, whose eyes were wide; terrified; darting between Twitch and the wires she was close to. Slowly, ever so slowly, Twitch lowered herself to the catwalks.

“Mo… is everything-” Twitch was cut off by the small child hugging her, bursting into tears.

“Don’t do that again! Please! Don’t fly in here…” Twitch was patting Mo, looking at the others. The Terrans were all confused, but eventually followed Hot Rod in leaving the area.

Soundwave slammed his door shut, locking it behind him. He took a deep breath, falling back against said door, and sinking to the floor. She was sincere. Her terror was so sincere, it made him want to purge his tanks. Soundwave lifted his hand, looking down at Frenzy, who was snuggling up next to him. He was shaking.

“Take them off.” Soundwave looked to Ravage, sitting by his feet. Her voice was calm and cool… and commanding. “You’re safe here. Laserbeak and Frenzy will keep the Autobot away.” She nodded her head to each cassette as she spoke, Frenzy grumbling as she crawled out the vent, followed by Laserbeak.

Soundwave sighed, carefully removing his battle mask and visor. Ravage purred loudly, slinking around his legs to settle into his lap.

“There’s my beautiful sparkpup.”

He wasn’t beautiful, Prime made sure of that.

Chapter Text

Hot Rod sighed, marking the map with a big red “BAD DIMENSION (EMPTY)” near the indicator for the current dimension they were in. Aside from a massive energy spike that they were slowly getting closer and closer to, there was nothing. The energy spike was far too high to be a star or a black hole, it was something else; something likely dangerous. Even the Quintessons didn’t have an energy signature like that.

Hot Rod would have to roll the dice again.

“May all crew please come to the Multiverse Map room. Again: all crew to the Multiverse Map room. That includes you, Shockwave. Science can wait until we’re stable.” Hot Rod made the announcement over the ship’s system, closing it off before snickering to himself.

Laserbeak was the first one to arrive, dropping down from a vent. “We’re leaving this empty place?”

Hot Rod held his arm out, but Laserbeak shook his head, landing on the console. “Yeah, something is wrong here.”

“Aside from the vast emptiness of space?”

Hot Rod nodded, leaning against the map’s console. “We’re heading towards a massive energy spike; bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. It’s actually flagged in the ship’s system as something to avoid.” Hot Rod pulled up the alert, as well as the graph that Perceptor had on the Datapad the day before. They lined up perfectly, once scaled correctly.

“Any idea what it is?” Laserbeak tilted his head, hopping closer to the display.

Hot Rod shook his head; “Not a clue. But if it had the Quintessons running away…”

“It can’t be good.” Laserbeak looked back at Hot Rod. Despite not having a human face, Hot Rod could tell he was frowning.

Perceptor came in, followed closely by Dead End. Neither said anything, instead approaching the console; Perceptor taking a cord from his wrist to plug into the console. Dead End stood close to his friend, leaning forward with both hands against the console. He watched as Perceptor pulled up various things, ranging from everyone’s location on the ship, to the current energy levels of the engine. Clobber and Whirl followed soon after, discussing something that Hot Rod didn’t think to pay attention to. Knowing them, it was probably about the Terrans.

Hot Rod internally groaned thinking about the Terrans. They were tiny, and had human… friends? Were they friends or simply teammates? Or were they something more, like… Hot Rod glanced at Laserbeak, who huffed.

Humans were weak, fragile, tiny, and – to borrow a word from Soundwave – inferior. Yet the Terrans treated the humans with the same familiarity that Soundwave did to Laserbeak. It was dangerous to the humans. Cybertronians and humans didn’t belong in the same space together. Earth was the human planet, and Cybertron was the Cybertronian planet.

“Cybertronians, Superior. Earthians, Inferior.”

Hot Rod snorted, turning away from Laserbeak. He looked damn smug for a bird, holding his head high.

“Let me guess, Laserbeak just said something funny?”

“He quoted Soundwave.”

Dead End rolled his eyes, Clobber looked confused, Perceptor actually succeeded in stifling his laughter, Whirl did not. Somehow, Laserbeak managed to look even more proud.

“What’s so funny?”

Everyone looked to the door to see Soundwave standing there, with his family.

Everyone lost it at that. Hot Rod clung to the console, burying his face in his arms. Laserbeak fell backwards, crashing to the ground in a fit of screeching laughs. Dead End had his face buried in his hands, shaking his head, trying his hardest to hide his laughter. Perceptor had crouched to the floor, keeping one hand on the wire connecting him to the console. Whirl was clining to Clobber, adding new scratches to her frame, while she still looked confused. She was chuckling softly though, caught up in everyone else’s laughter.

“Laserbeak! Summoner of Soundwaves!” Hot Rod managed to spit out between laughs. That finally got Dead End to lose it.

“Damnit Hot Rod!” Dead End sat on the floor next to Perceptor, curling in on himself but still laughing. “Fucking summoner of Soundwaves, sweet Primus…” Dead End was still shaking his head, Perceptor falling over to lean against him while laughing.

The rest of the Decepticons, as well as the Terrans and humans showed up by the time the original six had settled down; all of them having collapsed to the floor from laughing too hard. Clobber being the exception. She was just laying on the floor with Whirl.

No one questioned why they were laughing, instead opting to stand in corners, by the walls, or perching in the rafters. Twitch was eyeing them suspiciously from her perch as they all finally started standing back up. Dead End made sure Perceptor didn’t pull the cord out; Clobber helped Whirl stand, though with much difficulty from both parties; and Hot Rod righted Laserbeak, allowing him to jump onto the console himself.

“So, dear captain, precisely why are we here?” Starscream finally asked, condescension dripping from his voice.

Hot Rod reset his vocalizer, coughing as he remembered to breathe, “So, we are here because we are leaving this dimension.” He once again pulled up the huge map, indicating which dimensions the ship had been to already. Most of them were labeled with a big red “GUILTY” in the Quintesson language. “As you can see, this dimension is empty. The only reason we ended up here is because, well, I rolled the dice during our… Departure.” Hot Rod glared at the Terrans as he said this, only the little human femme met his glare. “We’re going to be rolling the dice again, but now we know that this plane has nothing in it and should be avoided at all costs.”

“Really? What about the giant energy spike you Autobots found?” Soundwave asked, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall. Frenzy was matching his pose. It was kind of cute.

“The energy spike, according to Quintesson logs, is dangerous.” Perceptor stated, pulling up the two graphs, as well as a rough translation of the logs he had found.

“If the Quintessons are running from it, it’s likely something that can kill them. Which, while good, also means it has free will. And unless we go back to our own plane and doom an entirely different Cybertron, we’re not getting a cortex helm anytime soon.” Dead End stated, “plus, the only ones here who have combat experience against Quintessons are all against mind control.”

Hot Rod turned his gaze to Dead End; “Yeah. Violently.” Laserbeak screeched, perching on Hot Rod’s shoulder while also glaring at Dead End.

Dead End put his hands up; “We were all on the same side once. We’re all on the same side now.”

Starscream scoffed; “And how do we know that you Autobots aren’t mind controlling the decepticons of your world? Seems pretty convenient if you ask me.”

“Excuse me?!” Hot Rod spun to face Starscream, Laserbeak squawking in surprise at the sudden movement.

“Don’t presume to know about our universe. Once upon a time there were no Decepticons or Autobots.” Dead End stepped toward Starscream, glancing at Clobber and Whirl who moved closer to Hot Rod. “We were all brothers in arms once, fighting against the senate who wanted to implement such methods. Optimus wanted them to go to prison, Megatron wanted them dead. That was why we were divided. Optimus had trouble admitting that some enemies could not be saved, were not worth saving.” Dead End relaxed, glancing back to see Hot Rod petting Laserbeak; “Our Megatron lost himself to the appeal of power, and he paid the price.” Dead End nodded to Clobber and Whirl, Clobber resting a hand on Hot Rod’s arm while Whirl settled in on the other side of Hot Rod. “Optimus extended an olive branch to Tarn, and it cost a bot his life. A Decepticon had to die for the sake of Cybertron before Optimus finally realized that not everyone thinks like him, and not everyone is worth saving.”

Dead End heard Clobber whispering to Hot Rod, trying to calm him down. He also noticed that Soundwave flinched.

Chapter Text

Aside from a slight ship-wide rattle and woozy feeling, the jump to the new universe was smooth. The map lit up with information about the universe, filling in the plane they were on with all the variations of the chosen universe. All in the Quintesson language. Soundwave watched as Perceptor scrunched up his face, forcing the language to change. It was the Autobot language, of course.

“Alright, looks like the war is still going on in this universe.” Hot Rod sighed, slowly translating the read-out to the Decepticon language. “And they’re still on Earth… This is going to be a universal constant, isn’t it?” Hot Rod glanced at Perceptor.

The blind bot shrugged; “I hope not. We shouldn’t co-habitat with such a fragile species.”

“Especially those of us that are blind.” Dead End added, snorting. He earned a smack from Perceptor.

Hot Rod sighed; “He is right Percy. You were still on Cybertron while we hunted for the Allspark, and now without your optics…” Hot Rod paused in his translating, looking at Laserbeak before turning back to the console. “There were times when I would sneak out to join human races, Optimus always scolded me when I got back.”

“Oh yeah. Soundwave was always scolded by Megatron because he liked human music.” Everyone looked at Clobber. “Humans apparently have a festival for music.”

Laserbeak rolled his eyes, and with another sigh Hot Rod went back to translating the information.

They were all so sincere. Didn’t they know how to keep secrets? Didn’t they have shame? Didn’t they

Soundwave shook his head. He had been spiraling like that since joining. It was inconvenient.

“So…” Starscream started, walking towards the console; “Do we have any idea what lies in store for us? What’s the plan? Ransack the planet for all its Energon?”

Hot Rod chuckled, “No, no. We’ll drop by, set up some solar panels, the humans will grab some food, and once everything is all set we’ll look for the Decepticons and Autobots and warn them.”

Everyone was quiet. Shockwave glanced at Soundwave, who nodded. “Is that really the entire plan? No plans to leave the humans here?”

“As much as I would like to leave them on Earth, these humans are kids, and leaving kids in an active warzone is generally a bad idea. Especially ones who are part of an extremely fragile species.” Hot Rod sounded annoyed, casting a glare at the human children.

That was fair enough. The smaller the species, the more fragile they were. Frenzy and Rumble didn’t even have the ability to regulate her temperature. If it got too cold, the Energon in her lines would freeze. Ravage and Laserbeak had the ability to regulate their temperature, but they lacked the ability of most normal mechs. He always worried about Frenzy, she was so fragile just like Rumble, so fragile, it shouldn’t have happened. A normal mech

Soundwave resets his vocalizer; “And what is your plan if they take action? Or if there’s another G.H.O.S.T division in this realm?”

Hot Rod scrunched up his face, looking between Soundwave and the console; “You know what? I’m going to leave looking for human things to you. Coming up with a battleplan will be left to Starscream, you know Megatron best. Optimus only needs to see we have humans with us and he’ll back down.”

The Decepticons stared in surprise, glancing at each other. Soundwave took a deep breathe; “Understood.”

Starscream smiled; “Decepticons! Grab your weapons and be ready in case our landing is noticed!” The Decepticons cheered loudly, startling the Terrans and humans.

Hot Rod chuckled, shaking his head as the Decepticons ran out of the room to grab weapons. Starscream and Shockwave walked off together, talking about a potential battle plan. Soundwave stood there for another minute, turning to leave. “Hold on there, Soundwave!”

Soundwave stops, looking to Hot Rod.

“I think you might get more information out of the console here. It’s capable of connecting to any human technology.”

Soundwave huffed; “You expect human things to be useful to me?”

Hot Rod smirked; “You’d be surprised what you can learn from using Human’s tools against them.” He glanced at Hashtag; “Besides, I think you have a little team to help you.” Hot Rod left then, followed by the rest of the crew.

Soundwave stood there as the door closed, slowly looking back at the Terrans and humans. They were fragile. Like Rumble, like Frenzy. He was bad luck. He shouldn’t be near them. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad

“So, uh… You can hack things?” The purple one… Hashtag, her name is Hashtag. She helped them once. Asked.

“Monitor. Human security protocols are lacking.” Soundwave turned away from them, walking towards the console. Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Ravage followed; Frenzy climbing up onto the console, mindful of the buttons.

“So, boss-bot, what are we observing?”

Soundwave looked at Frenzy. “Really?”

Frenzy laughed, “Oh, come on! That was funny! I’m funny!” She suddenly gasped; “Hey! Do you think we can connect to our world? Oh man! Megatron would be so up-”

“ABSOLUETLY NOT!” Soundwave snapped, slamming a hand down on the console. He glared at Frenzy’s cowering frame before shaking his head. “No. You’re not taunting them. They’re no longer our problem.” If he could he would flip the console over.

“Okay… Sorry.” Frenzy sat on the edge of the console.

She was genuinely sorry.

“Just…” Soundwave took another deep breath; Ravage and Laserbeak joining Frenzy; “Just.” Soundwave focused back in on the console.

-----

They were able to see this Earth now, and Soundwave still hadn’t found anything concrete on the existence of the Autobots and Decepticons, or anything related to secret military groups that might be hunting them. The Terrans and humans weren’t helping, instead just hanging around in a corner, talking amongst themselves or playing games. He didn’t care to find out which it was. Hashtag was the exception, standing next to him, peering over the edge of the console.

“So…” Hashtag started. Soundwave looked down at her, not saying anything. “Do you need any help?”

With a small growl, Soundwave reached down and picked her up, eliciting a little squeak from the Terran. “Rules of being on a console: Stay away from the display source. Don’t step on the buttons. Be mindful of where the edge is.” He held her with her feet on the lip of the console, where there were no buttons and she could lean against him.

Hashtag stood there for a minute, clearly surprised as he let her go and moved over to a different part. Frenzy looked up, tilting her head. “There are more rules, but those are the basics.” Laserbeak and Ravage were next to her, on a thin bar with no buttons. A seam, one of the safer places for cassettebots to sit.

“Right, right…” Hashtag took a deep breath and began working, looking up videos from small accounts, seemingly more interested in looking for things that fit the description of robots than actually finding out about military companies. “Think I might have found something.”

Soundwave’s head tilted as she played the video. There wasn’t much, a human walking in the woods, freaking out.

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!”

“Hey!” Mo jumped up from where she was; “We’re not supposed to watch videos like that!”

“Shut up.”

“But those are-”

Soundwave turned his glare on them. “You’re not helping, you don’t get a say. Shut. Up.”

The humans and Terrans wilted, huddling back into their corner. Soundwave turned back to the display, motioning for Hashtag to continue.

“Okay, so, here’s the deal: Me and my bro-”

“Hey there!”

“Were out here, looking for Mothman, and we found him!”

The Camera spun around to show a dark forest, seemingly empty. Then they saw it, purple lights set in a pattern, moving, slowly. Mechanical whirring, somehow much louder than the footsteps of the Cybertronian. A decepticon symbol caught a glimmer of moonlight, reflecting brightly against the dark form. The creature turned slowly, head tilting. Where a face should have been, there was instead a screen, flashing bright white, causing the humans to flinch.

A sudden, horrific, metallic screeching came from the beast.

“OH SHIT!”

“GO, GO, GO, GO!”

The humans turned and ran.

Hashtag closed the video, looking at Soundwave. “There’s more.” She pulled up a few newspapers clipping from a place called “Griffon Rock”. Soundwave huffed, seeing the painfully obvious Autobot symbol on the bots. “The article claims they’re some sort of advanced rescue machines, aimed to aid humans in dangerous tasks.”

“Any mention of Decepticons?”

Hashtag shook her head; “No. No mention of Autobots Either. Just some guy called Doctor Morocco.”

“Is he like Mandroid?”

Soundwave turned to glare at the Terrans. Thrash has spoken up, shrinking back. They were all looking at him. “Who is Mandroid?”

Hashtag groaned; “Don’t even get me started on that jerk! He wanted to combine humans and cybertronians, and he also puppeteered my body around to try and kill my family! My family!” She looked positively indignant.

Soundwave looked back at the monitor. “If he’s the only thing we have to deal with, landing there is our best bet.”

So they were family. Like him. She almost suffered the same fate as he did. She was lucky. No one deserved to hurt like that. No one but Megatron.

Soundwave shook his head. “Come on, let’s go tell Hot Rod.” He moved to the door, keeping it open until everyone had filed out.

<< Primary Directive: Keep the small ones safe. >>

Chapter Text

Starscream was absolutely giddy with excitement. Hot Rod, who had only known him for a week, had put him in charge of coming up with a battle plan. Sure, the chances of something going wrong was slim, but it was always better to be prepared than not.

Megatron never thought like that. Always coming up with crazy last-minute plans that always resulted in us retreating. Starscream growled, remembering every defeat. And the incident. Primus the incident. Part of Starscream wanted to ask Soundwave how he was holding up after it happened, but Megatron betrayed them before he could ask, and everything went to pit. Asking at this point, after so long, was rude. The four of them seemed to be doing fine now, especially since they left Megatron behind.

Starscream raised a brow as he finally joined the others at the entrance. He wasn’t the last, as Soundwave still wasn’t present, but he was confused. Hot Rod had a blaster, that was a very familiar shade of blue.

Starscream smirked; “Captain Hot Rod, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but where did you get that blaster? It quite clashes with your paint.” He watched as Hot Rod’s little group of friends stiffened, while the other decepticons took notice. Some started snickering.

“It’s from my Soundwave.” Hot Rod replied. Flat, not looking up from said blaster.

Okay. That was…

“And that’s why we don’t bathe Ravage!” Frenzy chimed in, strutting down the hall with the Terrans and human in tow. Said cat was stalking at the back of the group, water dripping from her joints. Her ears were back, and she looked furious. “Hey guys! Soundwave’s going to be a little late. Ravage bit him.”

Hot Rod looked up; “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did Ravage bite him?”

“Oh!” Frenzy chuckled; “Well, Ravage is a cat and uh… she thinks licking herself counts as cleaning.” As Frenzy finished, Ravage pounced on her, eliciting a yelp from the small femme.

“Enough.”

Ravage jumped away from Frenzy at Soundwave’s voice. His left arm now sported tiny puncture marks. “Whoever decided that bathing was absolutely necessary, your days are numbered.”

Starscream rolled his eyes; “It was my idea, if you must know. And it was backed up by Perceptor and Shockwave.”

“Of course, the two bots staying behind.”

Hot Rod finally put the blaster away; “the Laserbeak from my dimension is also staying behind. He’s going to watch over the Terrrans and humans.”

Perceptor tilted his head; “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“No, he knows how fragile humans are.” As if to prove his point, Laserbeak quietly landed next to the small human femme, warbling at her quietly. “He says he’ll make sure no one steps on you.”

“Um… Thanks?” Mo stared at Laserbeak, who perked up.

“Hey! That’s no fair!”

“Yeah!” Twitch and Robby stepped forward, staring defiantly at Hot Rod. “We all have combat experience! We should be going with you!”

Hot Rod stared at her, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “The only reason you’re here is because you snuck onto my ship. Children, especially humans, should not be fighting things where one misstep gets the human killed.”

“He has a point.” Soundwave moved past the humans and Terrans; “Frenzy, you will also stay here.”

Frenzy groaned; “Fine” She wasn’t pleased, but she knew better than to argue.

“Wait, we don’t want to stay here with a bunch of Decepticons!” Robby yelled, stepping closer to the exit.

“I’ll be here!” Perceptor yelled back, clearly offended.

“You’re blind!”

“Hey!” Dead End glared at Robby, putting an arm in front of Perceptor; “He may not have optics likes the rest of us, but he’s still a good shot. So you either stay with him or you run the risk of getting killed.”

“We’re at risk of getting killed anyways!”

“And why would I bother with that?” Shockwave finally spoke, “We’ve already dealt a massive blow to Megatron by kidnapping you, so killing you would serve no purpose beyond creating a mess, and likely getting thrown off this ship. It is illogical to continue fighting you humans and Terrans.” With that, he walked off, likely back to the labs.

Perceptor shrugged, “He has a point.” He stayed near the wall until he was sure he was past the Terrans and humans, and followed Shockwave.

The Terrans stood there, all of them looking displeased as they looked between Hot Rod and the hallway. “Alrighty, come on bitties! Follow auntie Frenzy!” Robby opened his mouth, clearly about to protest; “Ah, ah! No arguments! Your options are to stay here or follow me and do fun things. Your choice~!” With that, she turned and left, humming to herself.

“Laserbeak.” Both versions of the bird looked to Soundwave; “The one staying here.” The Laserbeak that hung out with Hot Rod was slightly smaller than Soundwave’s own Laserbeak, perking up now that he knew he was being talked to; “Frenzy has a habit of pestering Megatron and the Autobots. Keep her from doing that.” The smaller Laserbeak nodded, flapping his wings and taking off to follow her. “Hashtag…”

The Terran startled, staring up at Soundwave.

“Help Laserbeak. I don’t… Distract her with something.” With that he walked off the ship, getting clear and transforming to take off into the air.

“Huh.”

Everyone looked to Starscream, who looked at where Soundwave had run off to and back at Hashtag. “Huh…” He looked back out the exit. “I should probably talk to Shockwave later.”

Chapter Text

Soundwave had no idea why he asked Hashtag to distract Frenzy. She would probably encourage Frenzy’s taunting.

“Ravage, Laserbeak: Scan the island for Energon crystals.” It made sense for them to look around for Energon Crystals. Both could easily blend in with the local fauna, and both were skilled enough to escape in an emergency.

“And what about you? What does my little Sparkpup plan to do?”

Soundwave wanted to roll his eyes. Ravage would never give up that little nickname. “I plan to see where the Decepticons are. I’m much better at stealth in this form.”

He could feel Ravage’s disapproval.

“I don’t plan to engage with them. I may leave a note on a terminal about the Quintessons.”

“So you’re speeding along Hot Rod’s plan?”

“The sooner we get everything done, the better.” Ravage wasn’t convinced. “The sooner we leave, the less chance of gaining more stowaways.” It was a simple. They spent too long in their home dimension, allowing the Humans and Terrans to not only find the ship, but also sneak on to likely sabotage it and also spy on them.

Soundwave’s Engines sputtered as he realized something. They wanted to spy on the Decepticons. They planted cameras somewhere on the ship. They were listening and spying and

“Soundwave!”

Frenzy’s cry shook him from his spiral. “Frenzy, new order: See if there are any cameras that shouldn’t be there. Look in personal quarters, isolated hallways, the storage bay. Anywhere mechs would want to gather to discuss secrets or plot something.”

“You got it!”

Soundwave was dangerously close to the water, but it was fine. He didn’t mind flying this low, it actually benefitted his current frame. He thought about his previous frame: it had been some sort of music player that he scanned in a hurry. Aside from being relatively small, it lacked the stealth he was used to. A flying box wasn’t exactly something common on this planet. It had only been 4 human years in that frame, but it came with so many problems. His fellow Decepticons liked to push his buttons.

Quite literally.

His previous frame had included buttons and dials that were a little too close to certain parts for his liking, and some of the others who had managed to leave Earth had actually taken an interest in him, and decided to press said buttons. Thankfully, Megatron had stopped it.

Would he stop it if it happened now? Would they try to hunt him down? Did they even know Megatron had betrayed them?

Soundwave banked left, dipping his wing into the water. They had lived under the ocean for so long, he’d never thought he’d miss it. As much as he hated this planet, the ocean was beautiful, filled with so many creatures of various sizes. Even humans found the Ocean irresistible. The only ocean they really had on Cybertron was made of rust, and was deadly. Sure, this ocean could rust them, but it would take much longer than humans lived. It would also require the Cybertronian to completely neglect their own care.

Soundwave leveled out, flying straight once again. There were no Decepticons on that tiny island, only Autobots. Hot Rod could warn them, and he’d warn the Decepticons. As soon as he found them.

A little ping should be enough. Soundwave smirked internally. A small, encoded distress ping, specifically reading as Decepticon was sent out.

“Soundwave? You good?”

“Hatchling?”

“Soundwave! Are you okay?! Who is trying to-”

“Relax!” Right, of course his family would be the first to see his ping; “It’s meant to alert the decepticons of this universe.”

“You think that’s a good idea?” Frenzy’s concern was warranted. If the video was any indication, the Decepticons of this world were the type to attack first and ask questions later.

“It’s my own code. If they can’t read it, THEN we have a problem.” Soundwave could decode his own work. If the Decepticons of this world couldn’t decode it, then that meant they didn’t have a Soundwave. It would be a problem then.

Soundwave felt his plating ruffle as the air shifted. Something wasn’t right. Soundwave managed to catch a glimpse of green above him before banking to the right, dodging a blaster. Hie enemy looked like a Cybertronian drone. It was sleek, dark, and had purple lights.

“Scrap.”

“Sparkpup?”

“It’s fine. I got this.”

“Sound-”

Soundwave cut off the connection to his family. He’d get an earful from Ravage later, but that was fine. He could deal with it, he just needed to focus. “Calm down” Soundwave had to dodge another blaster shot, soaring into the air; “I said calm down! I’m not looking for a fight!”

<<”Purpose”>>

It wasn’t a question, and it clearly wasn’t the bots own voice. It was a recording. Great, a bot that couldn’t speak. “I’m here to warn you! Apparently-” Another flash of green. Soundwave went to bank to the right but was cut off by blaster fire, slamming into the green thing before he could stop. His sensors alerted him of a wall right in front of him. Transforming quickly, he dug his claws into the floor as he skidded to a halt. Looking back, the drone came though the portal and transformed. It was the bot from the video. “Okay, I might be in trouble.”

Silence.

“Ravage?”

Soundwave was sure the connection was open, yet nothing was coming through. He glared at the bot; “What did you do?!” He raised his hand, ready to strike whoever this was down right here and now.

“My, you’re quite eager to fight.”

Soundwave stiffened. He looked to his left. A huge bot sat on a huge throne; he was silver and spiky, and had red eyes. Actually, looking around the space…

“Well done, Soundwave. Tell me, what threat do you know of?”

SCRAP. “Lord Megatron?”

“Indeed. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”

Soundwave sighed. He couldn’t contact his family, so he probably couldn’t contact anyone else, Autobot of Decepticon. “You’re not going to believe it, but I’m Soundwave. From another universe.”

Megatron didn’t move. Not much anyways. His eyes darted to the other Soundwave, whose nod was so subtle, it was almost missed. Megatron sighed; “Presuming you are speaking the truth, you mentioned a “Great Danger” in your message. Perhaps we could turn it against the Autobots?”

He wanted to turn the Quintessons against the Autobots? That was good. It meant this Megatron was still willing to fight, this Megatron wouldn’t betray them.

No, bad idea. The Quintessons were led by the Scientist. Megatron would give anything to win. Soundwave would be sacrificed to get the Quintessons on their side. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t hurt Frenzy that way, not again

“Negative.” Soundwave stated, crossing his arms. “The threat is called “Quintessons”. They have no interest in working with our kind. We are food to them.”

Megatron laughed suddenly; loud and booming; shaking Soundwave to his core. He watched as Megatron stood, towering over Soundwave. Megatron had always been taller than Soundwave, but he wasn’t used to having to crane his head to look Megatron in the eyes.

He’s tall. He needs to run. He needs Ravage. Wants Ravage. Where is Ravage? Where’s his carrier? She promised to always be with him, she promised revenge; she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised

Megatron slammed a hand down on Soundwave’s shoulder rattling his entire frame and his mind. This was Megatron, not Prime. “Your fear is misplaced, small Soundwave.”

Rude

“We are strong. Let the Quintessons come, we will beat them!”

The room erupted into cheers as Megatron raised his fist. Soundwave looked to the version of himself that belonged here. He hadn’t moved, instead observing him. If that Soundwave was going to observer him, he was going to observe back. The cheering died down as Soundwave focused on his other self. He hadn’t spoken at all, just stared. He moved slowly with the practiced patience of a bot that was used to watching where they stepped.

Soundwave could only hope this Megatron didn’t betray these Decepticons.

His Betrayal would make the war personal.

Chapter Text

Hot Rod wasn’t sure why he expected things to go well. So far, his life had been nothing but chaotic; one terrible accident after another. Everything so far had been going well, they set up the solar panels without issue, and collected energon without issue. Sure, the bots Soundwave had told him about showed up, but after a brief explanation of what they were doing and why; as well as questioning why they were working with humans; said bots left. It wasn’t that eventful; the eventful part came from when he returned to the ship.

Ravage was pacing the entrance, pausing and looking up as Hot Rod rolled up. He transformed back to his base mode, walking up to the entrance, giving a clearly disappointed Ravage a quick greeting before heading back inside. He made his way to the storage bay, now filled with crates of Energon. They still needed to go to the mainland and get food for the humans. He hoped they could handle that themselves; it seemed like the greater world wasn’t aware of Cybertronians. “Hey, has anyone seen Starscream?” he should probably make sure everyone was ready to leave the island.

“I think he’s in the map room with Shockwave and the Cassettes.” It was some sort of multi-legged mech. Tarantulas, if Hot Rod recalled correctly.

“Cool! Thanks leggy!”

“That’s not my name.” Hot Rod heard the bot mutter as he left, heading towards the map room.

Sure enough, Shockwave, Starscream, and the other two Cassettes were there; as well as the Terrans. “Hey guys!” He waved, startling all of them from looking at a display of the Earth they were currently on. It looked weird, like there were wires and various other mechanical elements deep underground. “What’s going on?”

“Well…” Frenzy started, looking to Starscream and Shockwave.

Starscream stepped forward; “Have you heard anything from Soundwave?”

“Uhh… No…” Hot Rod’s smiled fell; his normally happy expression giving way to horror; “What’s going on? Is he okay?!” Soundwave had to be okay. He was strong. Not even Megatron could keep him down. He knew, he could always tell. He was the best Decepticon.

Starscream put his hand up; “Calm down. We don’t know anything yet. We know that he got into a minor scuffle and closed his connection off to the Cassettes.”

“Wait, you can do that?” Hashtag asked, perking up.

“Yeah, we can.” Frenzy replied, sighing. “He usually doesn’t do it because he will get lectured by Ravage, but when he needs to focus – and we aren’t in danger – he will do it. Thing is, he usually doesn’t do it for this long.”

“What do you mean?”

Frenzy shook her head; “Soundwave closed it off shortly after leaving. He hasn’t opened it up since.” Frenzy leaned over, glancing at the door behind Hot Rod; “Ravage is uh… She’s in a state.”

Hot Rod huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose; “Okay… Well, at least there are only two options: The Autobots or the Decepticons. We find them-”

“ehhhhh…”

Hot Rod looked at Hashtag. “Please don’t.”

“There… may be another… group we may have to… consider?” Hot Rod groaned at Hashtag’s confession, Shockwave and Starscream glaring at her.

“I thought you checked for G.H.O.S.T systems.” Starscream looked furious.

“We did!” Hashtag defended. “There’s no G.H.O.S.T-related systems, but I… may… have hacked into government systems, and-”

“Hashtag!”

“What?! We weren’t finding anything the legal way!”

“So you went the illegal way?!”

“Yes! And lucky I did because MECH is worse than G.H.O.S.T! They’re not even an official government group!” Hashtag defended herself from her sister, throwing her hands up.

Hot Rod let out a whining groan, dragging his hands down his face. “Okay, first we check the Decepticons, then MECH, then the Autobots.”

“Why the Autobots last?”

Hot Rod looked at Frenzy with a blank expression; “Remember who we are talking about and ask me that again.”

Frenzy blinked for a minute; “Right. Soundwave. Let’s find the Decepticons!” Frenzy stood up, carefully hopping off the console. “I’ll go tell Ravage!” With that she ran off.

“Okay…” Hot Rod looked to Starscream; “Is there any way to figure out where Soundwave is right now?”

Starscream smirked, crossing his arms and cocking his hip; “You really think G.H.O.S.T – let alone Megatron – trusted us to go off on our own? We all have trackers.” Starscream walked over to the console, waving a dismissive hand at Hot Rod.

“I’m sorry- You have WHAT?!”

------

Decoding some ancient language. That’s all he was doing right now. Apparently, they were looking for some artifacts for some reason. Soundwave didn’t blame them for not trusting him with the full mission yet, he was technically unknown to them.

It didn’t help that Megatron stood behind him, watching him closely. Looming over him instead of watching Starscream or Shockwave.

They were all so tall. Why did they all have to be so tall?! He hated it. Stop staring at him. Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring…

“How long do you plan on keeping me here?” Might as well rip the proverbial weld open. He turned to look at Megatron. “I have to get back to my family.”

Megatron glared down at him, letting out a soft chuckle; “When the job is done, my small friend. When the job. Is. Done.” He turned and left; steps thundering as he retreated, hands held behind his back.

Where was he even going? They were in the main area as far as Soundwave could tell. With a heavy sigh, Soundwave returned to the monitor, helping his counterpart once again. He was really tall, just like all the others. “So… You’re me…” He cast a glance at the dark Soundwave, who hadn’t made any move to look at him. “Where are the rest of them?”

For the first time since arriving, Soundwave saw his counterpart freeze. He heard typing stop, vents hitch, as silence befell the room.

Did he… say something wrong?

His darker counterpart turned to face Soundwave now, slow, barely contained. He stood straight, not hunched over like he usually was. One step. One step and he was in front of Soundwave, head tilted down to stare. His visor flickered to life then, playing a video.

Soundwave watched, horrified, backing away as the video played.

<< PLAYING LOG: UNKNOWN>>

Soundwave was staring down at a small bot. It looked like some type of bat, if it were made of knives. Wings made of sharp metal plates, and face pointed much like Laserbeak’s. He was once a beautiful creature, clearly made for stealth, a matte coating now peeled away. The wings that were once sharp enough to cut lines in a living bot now bent and cracked, twisting and turning in ways no living bot’s body should. If he had legs, they were gone, dark blue energon holding barely any glow covering much of the ground. Soundwave pressed a sharp finger into the head of the creature, the single eye flickering before going dark.

Next was a cat; Ravage; covering two humanoid frames. Rumble and Frenzy, for sure. Ravage was clearly dead, half of her body completely gone. Soundwave was gentle in removing her, setting her aside. Glass fell from some sort of screen that made up the top part of her face, exposing the skeletal frame beneath.

The first humanoid was small, and had once been blueish in color. His visor, which came down to a point, was broken, as was his helm. Much like the cat, his skeletal frame was exposed; dimmed energon pouring from an open eye socket that no longer held an optic. The other was dim.

A cough came from the last bot, who attempted to turn over himself. When he couldn’t Soundwave turned him over to look at him. Much like the previous two, his visor was broken, but this time it was only his visor. Glowing red optics attempted to focus on Soundwave. When one finally did, the little bot smiled, reaching out for Soundwave. The bot’s eyes widened, the smile falling as his optics dimmed, his hand falling to the ground. Looking down, Soundwave’s hand was stabbed through the bot’s torso, right through his spark.

<<END LOG: UNKNOWN>>

His counterpart’s screen returned to black and he stepped back, returning to his work of decoding whatever it was they were decoding. The sounds of typing and vents resumed, though the air was still tense; vehicons casting quick, frightened glances at Soundwave’s darker counterpart. Externally, Soundwave was fine. As still as his counterpart was known to be, seemingly unbothered. It wasn’t true though. This darker counterpart of him was horrible, a monster, in all sense of the word. He had hunted down and killed those cassettes, and then took Laserbeak away to work with him. He probably didn’t even care about the poor bird.

Eventually, Soundwave returned to his share of decoding, casting quick glances at this darker version of Laserbeak. The poor guy deserved freedom, not being tied to the one who murdered his family.

-----------

Hot Rod glared out at the planet. He didn’t hate Earth, he loved it, but he would prefer if its inhabitants weren’t so fragile. Him and Soundwave had actually bonded over how cool Earth was, and that they wished humans weren’t so fragile. Or, at least, Hot Rod wished humans weren’t so fragile. Soundwave, apparently, wasn’t that concerned. Not about how fragile humans were, but he wasn’t concerned about stepping on them.

Something about Hot Rod’s confusion made Soundwave explain: He was used to dealing with creatures much smaller than him. Despite being a decepticon, and prone to being loud and… destructive, Soundwave knew how to watch his feet. Looking back, it made sense. Soundwave enjoyed dancing, he was so fun before the war that even the seekers danced with him.

Hot Rod missed those days. Things weren’t perfect, bots still fought, but the wounds of war were slow to heal. Hot Rod shook his head, clearing his mind. Now was not the time to get lost in memories, he had to find a place to land and then go looking for the decepticons of this world.

Hot Rod froze as the air in the flight control room shifted. Glancing around, he knew everyone else felt it. Their plating rattling, electricity dancing along their wires. Teleportation? No, some sort of bridge. A bridge that functioned similarly to a space bridge. Hot Rod could see everyone looking around, nervous. Hot Rod knew this feeling though… he knew he did…

“Moon Cheetah!”

Clobber looked at him, her single optic wide. “Huh? Wait, those things are-”

She wasn’t able to finish her question as a green, swirling vortex opened near the door. Everyone raised their weapons.

Hot Rod’s eyes widened at who came through.

“Optimus?”

Chapter Text

Earthspark notes:

- Hot Rod is apparently a smoker (Energon vapes??)

- Optimus prioritizes Humans and Autobots over Decepticons

- Sentinel encouraged harmful practices (Empurata, “Secretaries”, Functionalism, etc.) but was never open about taking part in such things/gave them a positive spin

- Sentinel was adept at Smear Campaigns

- Ratbat was secretive about personal life, though it is known that Ravage and Laserbeak worked for him, and Soundwave served as his secretary

- Publicly, Ratbat treated Ravage and Laserbeak as pets (in private, he knew how smart they were and valued that more than their forms)

- Publicly, Ratbat spoke derogatively (“Merchandise”, “plaything”, etc.) of Soundwave, praising his looks and claiming he “Was never one to share”. Privately, he found Soundwave’s ability (Lie detection) and work ethic more valuable than Soundwave’s looks

- Ratbat planned to escape (with Soundwave) as the war was winding up. An issue occurred (First violent protest, Megatron present, Optimus not) where his escape route lost power, and he died in an explosion

- Soundwave doesn’t like telling lies (side effect of his ability), so he will tell lies by speaking half-truths or omitting certain facts.

- The indication of one’s lying is Soundwave getting a headache. The severity of which depends on the severity of the lie

- Rumble and Frenzy were found by Soundwave in the slums while he was working for Ratbat. They were a couple of thieves, and made a mistake

- Ratbat’s worst crime is Embezzlement (Unknown to him and all others, he was technically an option for becoming a Prime because of this. He does actually care about others, and defends those who need defending; such as Soundwave and his family. He also just really likes money.)

Cyberverse notes:

- No Empurata surgery (Officially. Shockwave just be that way)

- Sentinel was not a “prime” but was elected (Election fraud?)

- Sentinel wanted to introduce culling of Outliers, Empurata, and other systems that would be negative.

-War started out as peaceful Decepticon protests, but upon not being heard turned violent

- Optimus and Megatron technically Won the war, but Megatron wanted to purge ALL of the ones in power (Council, Primes, Elected officials, etc.) while Optimus just wanted to imprison/punish the guilty

- There is racism, especially from jets (Most notably Starscream) towards car-based bots

- While neither side hates humans, the Decepticons view them as acceptable casualties, while the Autobots view them as something fragile and to be careful of (because they die easily)

- Hot Rod and Lazerbeak both got some powers after Soundwave’s death. Hot Rod can “overclock” (Overclocked, Overclocking), where he gets blue electricity running down his lines, his eyes glow, and his flames turn (Soundwave) blue/white. Lazerbeak got the sonic/noise blast, which is done through his beak

- The cosmic horrors (seeing yourself die horribly, cheating death, etc.) can, and will, be viewed as a part of daily life. This doesn’t mean it will be embraced/interacted with (Example: Universe three. AKA “Fuck, Unicron won.”)

- Still deciphering Quintesson (not exact, but they are getting closer and closer)

- Unicron doesn’t exist in this universe, so they cannot translate until there is a universe where the Autobots/Decepticons know about him

- Everyone is one bad day away from a downward spiral of “What if”/realizing every (major) choice they make gives birth to another universe (or ten)

- Hot Rod keeps track of blue Soundwaves because his soundwave told him to do something to ground himself (he just picked blue Soundwaves because it was something easy to keep track of)

-Quintesson tech/interactions do not spawn new universes (ie: there is no universe in Cyberverse where the Quintessons won, as that would cause a paradox)

Chapter Text

“Optimus… Everyone, you’re going to want to see this!”

Everyone looked to Ratchet. It was uncommon for him to call them all over to the monitors, but not unheard of. Still, his phrasing drove icicles of worry into the humans. As they all gathered around the monitors, they saw what had gotten the medic’s attention: A strange, alien ship was spotted off the coast of some island Northeast of them; and it was heading towards the mainland.

“Woah! More robots?!” Miko was clearly excited at the idea. Either they’d get more allies, or have to fight a two-front war. She really didn’t care which.

“It is unlikely. I do not recognize the design of that ship, nor does it match any in the records.” Optimus stated, calm but commanding as ever.

The more concerning part was the ship wasn’t trying to hide at all. On each monitor was a different news outlet, talking about the ship, calling in everything from professionals to “professionals”.

“It won’t be long before the Decepticons find them.” Jack was practically glaring at the monitors. He couldn’t understand why these ones were being so blatant; he did know that Agent Fowler was going to have an absolute field day with this.

As if merely thinking about the agent called him, the proximity alarm activated; heralding the arrival of Agent Fowler himself.

“Prime! You want to tell me what in Washington’s teeth is- oh, you’re already aware.” Agent Fowler came storming off the lift, only to be met with the monitors displaying the news. “Good. Now what in Uncle Sam’s glorious beard are you going to do about this?”

Optimus nodded at Agent Fowler; “Excellent timing Agent, perhaps you’d be willing to assist us in coming up with a plan to deal with this unknown prescience.”

Fowler glared, not in actual anger but in surprise, reeling back from where he gripped the guard rail; “You mean you don’t even know what this is?!”

“We have never seen such technology before.” Ratchet interjected, “We also lack recordings and records of such technology. Simply put, it’s not Cybertronian in nature.”

Agent Fowler looked at the rest of the group; Arcee shrugged, Bumblebee gave a sad or confused beep; Bulkhead was the only one to speak.

“I’m not even sure I could smash it.” He began walking over to the comms console; “I can get Jackie in on this, just in case he’s seen anything out there.”

-----

“So you’re telling me that a Quintesson ship is now on Earth?” Wheeljack did not sound pleased, not in the slightest.

“Mind sharing with those of us that don’t read Cybertronian what Quintessons are?” Miko was leaning with her back against the railing now, staring at the monitors as drawings and writing filled each one.

“Mostly myth and rumors, nothing official, though we all know how rumors can turn out.” Wheeljack sighed; he was clearly busy with something. Optimus nodded, while Ratched shuddered, recalling what the legend of Dark Energon versus the reality. “The most common stories of the Quintessons and their ships is that they travel to a planet, stay there for a few months, then boom. The planet is empty. Not even bodies.”

“You mean like Unicron?” Raf asked, scrutinizing the drawings against the photographs.

“Not quite. Unicron, back in his legends, was a planet devourer. Literally eating entire solar systems. The Quintessons… Well, no one knows what they do.” He hissed at something, grumbling about bolts; “There’s a lot of conflicting information and hear-say. Some claim it’s an ark trying to preserve all life in the universe.”

“And what about the other rumors?” Jack asked, worry creeping into his voice.

“Eh, the usual. Some say it’s trying to exterminate all life. Some say it brings them to a higher dimension. Lots of psychobabble that makes no sense.” A loud crack had everyone jump; “SCRAPPING WRENCH!”

“Never a dull moment on Team Prime.”

-------

Hot Rod cautiously eyed the bots coming through the portal. A ground bridge. Cheetor used them while he was on Earth, but Hot Rod had never expected to see one again. “Usually you ask permission before coming onto a bot’s ship.”

Optimus continued to stare at him, clearly shocked. Three more bots came in behind him, one of which was clearly Bumblebee. The other two were unknown to…

“Hot Rod?” A huge, hulking, dark green bot whispered, almost like he was doubting himself. The sound of a transformation cog activating rang through the main hull, and the bot’s hands changed from maces back to their usual form.

“Yes… you are?” Hot Rod had never seen such a bot, one that was not only huge, but also had integrated weapons; at least ones that transformed.

“Bulkhead… You… How are you here?” the bot – Bulkhead – looked around at the other bots present, frowning; “And what are all these ‘Cons doing here?”

Ah, right. Hot Rod forgot for a moment that Autobots might not be that happy to see Decepticons. “They’re part of my crew.” Hot Rod would swear that Optimus’s eyes grew brighter, and he seemed to stand taller.

“You achieved peace during your time in space?” He sounded… Happy.

Hot Rod blinked, remembering the Optimus from his world. He too had been happy to see Decepticons and Autobots working together, even if Megatron wasn’t part of that equation. “On a technicality, yes.” Hot Rod motioned to Starscream; “These bots with the Decepticon insignia are not from the same world as me. They were being mistreated…”

“Oh really? And how does one mistreat a ‘Con?” The femme finally spoke up. While the others finally put their weapons away, she still had hers drawn; more concerning was her glare at Shockwave.

“Put us in a prison, brainwash us, force us to fight our own to earn Energon… anything else I’m missing, Shockwave?” Starscream hissed, crossing his arms as he sarcastically waved one hand at Shockwave. He was leaving things out, and he knew it.

“Generalized torture with the cuffs and stasis bolts, harvesting of parts from still living bots, experimentation not only on us but also humans, withholding information from Lord Megatron and Optimus Prime, extended periods of isolation, draining bots that lost of all their Energon to feed those of us still alive, desecration of corpses, and the trackers.” Sockwave counted everything out on his one hand, glancing towards Starscream; “I believe that is everything… Commander Starscream.”

Starscream made a face that could best be described as having just tasted Energon waste. The Autobots that came through the portal seemed shocked; “Pray tell, who committed these crimes against you? Should they ever come here, we will make sure they are punished appropriately by the right authorities.” Optimus stated, nodding at Starscream. A soft “click” was heard as Optimus’s battle mask was folded away from his face. “You have my word as a Prime.”

Starscream, Shockwave, and the rest of the Decepticons began looking at each other, before bursting into laughter. Hot Rod sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I don’t think your promise means much to them when you were one of the bots that put them in that prison.”

Bulkhead and the femme looked at each other, exchanging looks of horror as they glanced at Optimus. Bumblebee shared their look of horror, though his expression was a mix of horror and confusion; like he couldn’t believe that Optimus Prime was capable of such a thing. Optimus, for his part, frowned; optics downcast as he took a deep breath, taking in the weight of Hot Rod’s statement. “I understand. You have every right to not trust me given your experience, however…” Optimus looked up, locking eyes with Starscream, who was finally calming down from his laughing fit; “I am not the same Prime as the one you left behind. I hold no hostility towards you, nor do I wish for my fellow Cybertronians to suffer. All I ask is that you respect the inhabitants of this planet while you are here.”

Starscream was still snickering, smirking as he took a few breaths to calm down fully. Once he did, he reset his vocalizer; “So, you’re only condition for helping us is that we don’t murder humans?”

“That is correct, Commander Starscream.”

Starscream hummed at this; “Those conditions are amendable. We are simply here to get our Soundwave back from wherever he is. You wouldn’t happen to have a blue bot who is filled with nothing but murderous rage in your custody, would you?”

Bulkhead and Bumblebee cast a glance at the femme, who looked offended; Optimus was unmoved, “We do not have a bot fitting of that description in our custody.”

“You know anyone who looks like an unmanned human drone, or a Cybertronian drone? The ones that fly?”

Optimus looked up, locking eyes with Frenzy. She was perched in the rafters along with the humans, the Terrans, the two Laserbeaks, and Ravage. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and the femme drew their weapons again.

“Woah, take it easy! I’m just asking a question.” Frenzy put her hands up, suddenly swinging back so she was hanging upside-down, craning her head to look at Optimus. “So, see anything like that?”

Optimus motioned to the other bots, all of whom tucked their weapons away. “I believe I know the bot you are referring to… though his involvement may complicate things.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Frenzy asked, kicking her legs. Hot Rod glanced at Starscream, who was moving closer to the microbot.

“If my intuition is correct, the bot you are referring to is our own Soundwave.” Optimus’s tone was grim, like even he did not want this to be true.

“Would a visual help?” Hot Rod asked, not waiting much for a response. “Hashtag, think you could bring up the video you showed me?”

Hashtag nodded, muttering to herself; “Might not even be the same bot, but it’s better than nothing.” She quickly brought up the video she had found online, the one that showed the strange, lanky bot with the screen face and Decepticon insignia.

“Yep, that’s our Soundwave.” Bulkhead grumbled. Bumblebee gave his own opinion, in the form of whirring beeps and clicks. Both moved closer to the screen, watching Soundwave intimidate the humans.

Hashtag let out a cough, drawing attention to herself; “As I said before, it might not even be the same bot.”

Frenzy shrugged; “Sure it is.” She grabbed the rafter, curling up so her feet were under her before swinging herself and landing on Optimus, perching herself on his shoulder. Despite the drastic size difference, Optimus stiffened. “Boss-bot usually adds his own quirks to important messages, beyond the basic encoding. Something that only we would pick up on. My guess is that he tagged this one with the URGENT flag. It would explain why your Soundwave came out swinging.”

“Wait, their Soundwave attacked him?” Hot Rod asked, clearly worried.

“If your Soundwave had an encounter with our Soundwave, then it is likely he is already with Megatron.” Optimus stated, staring at the now paused video. Soundwave’s menacing frame loomed on the screen, blank visor staring back.

“Yeah, the question is if he’s a prisoner or if he’s working with them.” The femme added, resting a hand on her hip as she glared at the image of Soundwave.

-------------------

Soundwave glared at the screen. It wasn’t right. He couldn’t understand how these bots were so blind. Maybe they just didn’t see things like he did, but that was fine. They were lucky to have him. Anyone was lucky to have him. No. Soundwave shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. Thinking like that got him in trouble.

Soundwave glared at the code. It had originated from Laserbeak, jumped to his darker counterpart, and finally slithered into the computer. The actual problem was that it was siphoning data from the computer, sending it somewhere else.

MECH.

Hashtag had found out about them while they were looking for information on this world, and had sent him the files while he was flying. They were some sort of terrorist group that wanted to do the same thing as GHOST.

Advance humanity beyond their current limitations.

It was disgusting, and only lead to suffering. Soundwave took a deep breath. If his counterpart was being willfully ignorant of this issue, then… perhaps he could use that to his advantage. He is a Decept-icon, after all.

<<Hello there. I see you :)>>

Chapter Text

Tracking the ship was easy, mostly because they weren’t being subtle. Getting a ground bridge to lock onto a moving target was difficult, but still possible. Raf smiled to himself. He was finally doing the same things as Soundwave. Sure, he wasn’t physically integrating himself into the technology, but if he could…

Raf chuckled to himself. If Soundwave weren’t trying to destroy Earth, Raf would actually face Soundwave for fun. He tested Raf; sometimes Soundwave won, sometimes Raf himself won. It was exciting in a way that playing games against Bumblebee wasn’t. A cold claw dug its way into Raf’s mind. What would happen if Soundwave lost? Would anyone – could anyone – challenge Raf the same way the Decepticon’s third in command did? Raf shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Soundwave had to lose. But just because he had to lose, didn’t mean he couldn’t continue to challenge Raf. Maybe, once the war was over, Raf could convince Soundwave to be his friend.

Raf smiled. He liked that idea!

Raf looked up at the sound of the Ground Bridge activating. He had gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the call to return or Ratchet moving. Miko and Jack had started playing a game while they waited for the Autobots to return, now sitting up and looking towards the portal.

Everyone’s eyes widened at the number of bots that came through. Ratchet was staring, eyes glazing over, hand moving to cover his mouth. “How…”

Hot Rod waved; “Hey there. My name’s Hot Rod. My understanding is that I’m dead in this universe. Please don’t freak out.” Hot Rod’s smile never faltered. His eyes drifted to the humans; “Oh Primus, why are there humans here? Cybertronians and humans should not be hanging out.”

Jack chuckled; “Yeah, Ratchet said the same thing.” He stood up and walked over to the railing, leaning against it. “I’m Jack, nice to meet you.”

Miko jumped up, running over to the railing, bouncing as she gripped it; “Hey there! Your paint job is awesome! I’m Miko! What do you turn into? How fast are you? I bet you’re really fast! You like music? You seem like a rock and roll type of guy, but like, old-school rock and roll, you know? I’m talking 80’s-old.”

Hot Rod blinked for a few seconds, taking a minute to process what she had said. His eyes flickered, seemingly resetting as his smile faltered for half a second; “I uh… I do like human music… It’s um… interesting.”

Human music. “You guys have your own music?” Raf asked, turning around on his chair to face them. He looked to the next bot that came through; a weirdly bright jet with… “DECEPTICON!”

Ratchet readied his scalpels, while Hot Rod moved to block the Decepticon from Ratchet; “Woah, woah, woah! Calm down! He’s not from your world.”

The strange jet looked around, shoving his way past Hot Rod. The jet made a disgusted noise as he looked at the base; “Human military base. Underground.” He paused, staring up. Raf could see his optics darting around like he was measuring things. “Old missile silo? That seems right…” He looked at Optimus now; “You’re not going to win Soundwave over by hanging out in a military base, you do know that right?”

Raf perked up; “You know Soundwave?”

The Decepticon nodded; “The Decepticons of your world seem to have taken our Soundwave. We simply wish to retrieve him, procure supplies for the Terrans and humans, and then depart.” He huffed and walked towards one of the corridors; “I’m Starscream, by the way. A few others should be joining us shortly. We’d prefer to remain undissected, doctor.” With a dismissive wave, Starscream walked down the corridor.

Everyone stared after him, some of them were a combination of shocked and confused. “THAT WAS STARSCREAM?!” Miko yelled, eyes gleaming with something dangerous.

Jack stared at her. “Uhhh… Miko?”

Miko’s eyes were still sparkling, her knuckles turning white from how hard she was gripping the railing. Her grin became wider. “I want him. He is beautiful.”

Bulkhead slumped, “Mikooo…”

The rest of the Guiding Light crew – the name of Hot Rod’s ship – eventually gathered in the missile silo. Soon after, Wheeljack arrived, clearly needing a break from repairing his ship. He also tried to attack the Decepticons, earning a warning from Optimus.

No matter how he tried, Raf couldn’t understand. Hot Rod, Perceptor, Clobber, and Whirl were more than happy to share stories from their world; while the Decepticons didn’t share much. What they did share had Optimus reeling. He didn’t speak, but his expressions were louder than any words. Optimus, upon learning the depths of how that version of himself had failed; when peace was given to him on a silver platter; looked ready to weep, while also looking ready to join them for the sole purpose of fighting that version of himself.

Starscream had only just barely quelled Optimus’ disappointment, by pointing out that they accidentally kidnapped Megatron’s new family. Apparently, the humans and smaller bots had snuck onto their ship, hidden, and now Hot Rod refused to go back to that dimension. Raf found it a little funny. Still, Optimus didn’t smile, expression somber as he apologized for crimes he didn’t commit.

A ping from the computer drew Raf’s attention away from the conversation.

<<Hello there. I see you :)>>

“Oh no… no, no, no, no!”

Soundwave hated waiting. Hated how long it was taking for these stupid humans to respond. He could imagine them, panicked at mere thought of his darker counterpart finding the code they snuck in. Still, he was confused…

<<Query: Reason for humans being interested in coordinates?>>

As far as he knew, they were just decoding coordinates. What was at those coordinates? Didn’t matter. Not his world, not his problem. He perked up as he finally got a response:

<<Wait… You are Soundwave, aren’t you?>>

Oh. They probably didn’t know.

<<Affirmative.>> No reason to give the terrorist group more information than they needed.

<<Aren’t you decoding the relic coordinates for Megatron?>>

<<Relic?>> he had never heard about any relic. He was just told to decode these coordinates, and alert Megatron when – or if – he got one. <<Query: What is this “Relic” you speak of?>> The more he knew the better. Maybe he could even gain the upper hand if things went south. Not like he could trust Megatron.

<<You’re the blue soundwave, aren’t you?>>

Soundwave wanted to laugh. Of course MECH found the ship, and had everyone in their custody; and of course Hot Rod had asked for help finding him. Autobots were way too trusting, it infuriated him. <<We’re deviating. Rephrasing Query: Why is MECH interested in this Relic?>>

The silence was long… concerningly so. They were plotting something, and if they had the ship then they had Frenzy, and Ravage, and Laserbeak, and Starscream, and Shockwave, and Hot-

<<Not MECH. The Autobots.>>

Soundwave refrained from tilting his head, confused. <<Query: You’re an Autobot?>>

<<Well, I’m not. I’m Human. But I’m also not part of MECH.>>

<<A human working with the Autobots. Expected.>> It was expected. The Autobots absolutely adored the humans. Soundwave didn’t hate them, but they kept him from going home, so they were a problem. <<New Query: what is the point of this Relic?>>

Raphael sighed. Everyone was worried when they first got the message. They had stayed quiet until the second message. Soundwave – their Soundwave – wouldn’t have been curious about why they were spying. He likely would have found the code, taunted them, and then removed it. Hot Rod had come up with asking about the color of the bot, chuckling at the clearly short temper of his Soundwave.

Raf felt bad, realizing he probably scared this other Soundwave. MECH wasn’t very subtle, and were the only humans that the Decepticons tended to look out for.

“Wait, so you guys are basically playing a videogame?” Hashtag was looming over Raf, smiling as she read the messages.

“Yeah, one where the entire Earth and all of humanity dies if we lose.” Miko stated, cocking her hips as she crossed her arms. Raf looked over to the colorful Starscream. He was in the exact same pose.

“It’s also multiple relics, not just one.” Jack stated, looking at Miko before glancing at Starscream; snickering as he saw them both. Both of them looked at him as he tried to cover his laughter with a cough.

“Precisely what is so funny, Human Jack?” Starscream asked, staring at Jack in a way that was best described as “not-angry-glaring”.

Jack coughed again, clearing his throat; “Nothing, nothing. Just thought of something.”

“Thought of what?” Now Miko was getting into it, not-angry-glaring at Jack now as well.

“Oh, you know. You causing trouble. Like by sneaking into Starscream’s cockpit and wreaking chaos, as you do.”

That seemed to pacify Miko, who tilted her head and got that menacing glimmer in her eye; with that evil, chaotic giggle. Starscream seemed to grow worried, placing a hand over his cockpit, glancing at Optimus, who nodded. Starscream looked back at Miko; “I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea that would be.”

Raf took a deep breath, returning his attention back to his own conversation. <<It’s multiple relics. And I’m not really sure, but I know it’ll end bad for Earth.>>

<<Query: Are the Relics stopping them from leaving?>>

<<No. Quite frankly, we’d all be REALLY happy if the Decepticons just gave up and left.>>

Soundwave tilted his head at that. The Humans wanted the Decepticons to leave? If that was the case… “Query.” Soundwave called to his dark counterpart, who only just barely turned his head to show he was listening. “Why are we even on Earth? Something wrong with Cybertron? Or are we just hunting down Autobots for fun?”

Soundwave’s dark counterpart turned back to the screen, as if choosing to ignore the question. Soundwave looked up as a file came up. He was surprised to learn that this Cybertron was dead. Covered in corpses, robbed of all gleaming opulence and rolling wilds.

<<Cybertron: DEAD.>>

<<Yeah.>>

<<Relics: Revive it?>>

<<Not sure.>>

Soundwave straightened up as he heard the door open, his darker counterpart glancing, while the Vehicons all looked up. Soundwave also looked up, seeing a rather… Flamboyant red bot strutting through the door. Like, actually strutting. Soundwave felt like his optics were about to burn out of his head from how bright red this bot was. Sure; Hot Rod, Perceptor, and Dead End were all bright red, but they didn’t have a glossy finish. They also didn’t have sparkly paint. At least… this bot’s paint might be sparkly?

The new bot whistle, a whistle that had Soundwave freezing. “You’re the new bot. Not as heavy duty as my friends, but you do look fun.”

Oh. Soundwave did not like that voice. Soundwave shook his head, turning back around to continue his work. He could hear the bot pacing closer.

“I’m not much of a fan of blue, but you pull it off quite well.” The bot was right behind him now, a clawed finger dragging up Soundwave’s back. “And your frame is quite unique.” He tapped said finger against Soundwave’s shoulder cannon; “Been a long time since I’ve seen something like this. Quite vintage.” The bot slowly dragged his servo down Soundwave spine.

Soundwave wasn’t exactly sure what happened. What he did know was that he was no longer facing the screen he had been working at. He was suspended in the air, with cables holding his arms down at his side, while the red bot was on the ground, at the opposite end of the room. Everyone was staring, as Soundwave kicked, trying in vain to break free. “DO. NOT. TOUCH. ME.”

The bot looked confused, staring at Soundwave for a while before looking to the door as it opened. Megatron; followed by some lanky, weird, sniveling bot; entered. Megatron looked around the room, taking everything in; “Precisely what happened in here?” It wasn’t a question; it was a command.

The alien Soundwave’s screen face flickered, showing precisely what happened:

The Red Bot had saddled himself up next to Soundwave as his servo slowly slid down his back. Soundwave let out what could only be described as a growl, slamming his servos on the console, startling everyone. Soundwave then turned around, slamming his palm against the red bot. The red bot flew across the room, trajectory followed by the larger Soundwave. The larger Soundwave looked back, another growl clawing its way from Soundwave, as he threw his arms behind him and used his sonic canons - the strange circles embedded in his palms - to launch at the red bot. Horror crossed the bot’s face, but before Soundwave could land another hit, the cables his darker counterpart used flew into frame, wrapping around Soundwave and pinning his arms at his sides. Soundwave let out some horrific, metallic shriek as he started kicking.

The screen fell black again, reflecting Megatron’s expression.

Welp, that certainly explained Soundwave’s current predicament. “Do not. Touch me.” He stated again, glaring at the red bot. He was struggling to stay calm, but at least now he wasn’t blinded by rage.

Megatron sighed, shaking his head. “It seems I must apologize for my improper manners. This, my small friend, is Knock Out. Our own doctor. Please ignore his theatrics.”

The red bot – Knock Out – stood up, looking himself overs. “Well, at least my paint wasn’t scratched. Honestly, don’t you know it’s a bad idea to make an enemy of the one who is meant to fix you?” Knock Out chuckled, crossing his arms as he smirked at Soundwave. “Now, seeing as how you’re part of our ship, I’ll need to give you a basic medical scan.” Knock Out took out a medical scanner; “Now, hold still. Sadly, this won’t hurt.”

“DROP DEAD.” Soundwave began kicking again, thrashing violently as the cables tightened around him. “You’re not scanning me!” He was growling again. Too many knew already. They couldn’t find out, they couldn’t, they couldn’t, they couldn’t, they couldn’t, they couldn’t Another metallic shriek came from Soundwave, the doctor glaring at his darker counterpart.

“Can you please hold him still?!”

Without much warning, Megatron stepped forward, backhanding the struggling bot; “ENOUGH!” Soundwave froze, staying in place for a minute before slowly turning his head to look at Megatron. “You may lack the loyalty I command from my soldiers, but you shall learn to respect me as they do.”

Chapter Text

“You may lack the loyalty I command from my soldiers, but you shall learn to respect me as they do.”

Soundwave grunted as he was grabbed from the cables holding him, and promptly thrown across the command center. “Everyone to the main flight deck. Now.” With that, Megatron turned around and left, likely heading to the main flight deck.

Soundwave watched as bots looked at him, Knock Out grumbling about supplies and fixing him afterwards. The other Soundwave didn’t move, just kept staring at him; even when all the other bots left, and it was only the two of them left. “What?”

<<”Query.”>>

Soundwave stared in surprise as his own voice came from his darker counterpart.

<<”Why-”>>

Soundwave stared, tilting his head. “What?” His counterpart replayed the scene of him attacking Knockout.

<<”Why-”>>

Soundwave grit his teeth, letting out a growl as he stood up. “I don’t like being touched, least of all by bots that I don’t know.” Soundwave dusted himself off, crossing his arms as he stared at his counterpart. “Now where is the main flight deck?”

Soundwave’s darker counterpart jerked his head, beckoning Soundwave to follow. He did, following the eerie bot down the equally eerie halls. Soundwave wasn’t sure when he started thinking of the Nemesis as eerie. He had been in said ship, trapped under thousands of pounds of water pressure for years, with limited windows to prevent possible leaks; it wasn’t meant to be eerie.

“You don’t have a lot of lights here.” Soundwave finally stated, looking down a connected corridor to see two bots having some sort of conversation together. They looked at the two Soundwaves and darted off. His darker counterpart didn’t respond, just continued walking through the maze of identical halls. “Something bad could happen.” It was true enough, every time one of his would-be “suitors” cornered him to press his buttons, it was always in one of the more isolated areas of the ship; which also happened to lack proper lighting. Soundwave clasped his hands together in front of him.

Finally, they reached the main flight deck; bots were sitting or standing everywhere, forming a circle in the middle, where Megatron stood. Everyone looked to Soundwave, who shrunk back. Stop staring at me, I know you’re staring. Stop it, stop it, STOP IT Soundwave took a deep breath. He couldn’t rely on Ravage to help him, and he needed to focus. The gangly Soundwave moved to the side, nudging Soundwave forward, towards Megatron.

Taking another deep breath, Soundwave squared his shoulders and marched forward. He may not win, but he wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

“He’s still not responding.” Raf bit his bottom lip. He was clearly getting worried the longer Soundwave didn’t respond. Starscream cast a glance at Shockwave, a grimace on his face held a bit of concern.

Hot Rod stayed where he was, watching everyone from where he was leaning against a wall. “Any luck so far?”

“None. You’d think a giant ship would be easy to find!”

Hot Rod stifled a chuckle, covering it with a sigh. “Yeah, well, if the humans didn’t see it, they must have some pretty good cloaking tech.”

“You mean like what we should have on our ship?”

“If we knew how to integrate it, we would. You know that.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Hot rod could practically see Lazerbeak rolling his eyes. He had decided to go out and do his own search for the Nemesis, not that it yielded any results so far.

“Woah.”

“What?”

“Humans may be weird, but I doubt they know how to build a ship like THAT.”

Hot Rod pushed himself away from the wall as he looked at the picture Lazerbeak sent. “Woah…”

“What?” Everyone was looking at Hot Rod now, clearly confused.

Dead End seemed to be the first to realize what was going on; “Did Lazerbeak send you some pretty picture of a track?”

Hot Rod rolled his eyes; “No, I’m pretty sure he just found the Nemesis.” Everyone stared in surprise while Hot Rod pulled up the image Lazerbeak had sent him. It was a huge, spiky, clearly inhuman ship. To be honest, Hot Rod wasn’t even sure how it was flying.

“Wait, you sent Lazerbeak out to look for the ship?” Miko asked, seemingly surprised.

Hot Rod looked back at her; face contorted in confusion and offence, “No. Well, not really. He wanted to look for it. I just sent him the information you guys had on past locations; he figured out a possible flight path.” The humans and bots of this universe were all looking at him in confusion; “What? He’s a free bot. He can do what he wants.”

The bots of this universe started looking at each other, concern on their faces. Bumblebee made some noises, looking at Raf as he did so. “Uh, Bumblebee asks if that’s just your universe. Surely not every universe has sentient animals.” Optimus was looking closely at Bumblebee before turning his attention to the Cassettes.

“HEY!” Everyone looked to Frenzy, her shout having been accompanied by a hiss and squawk from Laserbeak and Ravage. “I may be dumb, but I’m not some stupid drone!”

“Well, you’re obviously not an animal. But Ravage and Laserbeak are, so…” Raf stated, looking from Frenzy to Ravage and Laserbeak. The cybercat hissed and swiped at him before stalking off away from him, likely looking for someplace to isolate herself. Laserbeak flapped his wings and let out another squawk before taking off to lurk in the rafters.

Frenzy sighed heavily, groaning as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “They’re not like your Earth animals you idiot.” Everyone looked confused, except Bumblebee, who was slowly looking more and more horrified. Another sigh, and Frenzy looked to Raf; “Mind if I ask why you think they’re just dumb animals?” Ravage let out another hiss from somewhere in the shadows. “Shaddup! What happened to your famous patience?!” A low growl was Frenzy’s only response.

Raf looked to the Autobots of this universe, as if asking them for help to explain. Wheeljack huffed; “Come on. Those two don’t talk, they do everything Soundwave says.”

Miko then chimed in; “Plus, I mean, look at them! They’re obviously just a cat and a bird.”

Ravage came charging out of the shadows, hissing and growling at Wheeljack, her tail lashing and her ears back. Frenzy didn’t say anything, just looked to at Ravage before slowly looking at Wheeljack; “If she’s so dumb and can only follow commands, how did she understand you just now?” She looked positively smug as she spoke; “plus, by your own logic, your Bumblebee is nothing more than a dumb animal.”

Wheeljack didn’t say anything, though he opened his mouth to do so. His face slowly morphed from confidence to realization. He looked at his teammates, all of them shared equally surprised looks, with two exceptions. Bumblebee was looking absolutely horrified, like he had done something horrible and was just now realizing how bad it was. Optimus, on the other hand, was looking at his team with a somber expression; “It seems I failed to properly explain the true strength of our enemy.”

Ravage sat down, glaring at Optimus.

Optimus nodded to her; “It seems I owe you both an apology, as well as the Laserbeak of our world. I never expected I would have to explain that you all are sentient to my own team. The Laserbeak of this world is the last of his kind, from my understanding. It simply never came up.”

Frenzy sighed; “At least it’s an effort?”

Ravage hissed.

Chapter Text

Soundwave stared at Megatron. Soundwave knew fighting him was a bad idea, but this Megatron didn’t have his precious Optimus Prime to back him up. It was truly a one-on-one. No cassettes, no Prime, no scouts, no little kids, no humans. Soundwave flexed his servos, he would charge first, his speed was his greatest asset. Well, his sonic cannons were his greatest asset. Bots usually forgot about them or were unaware of how versatile they were.

<<Femmes and Bots! Are you ready?!>>

Soundwave jumped as he looked behind him. His darker counterpart was playing some audio that sounded like it was from some sort of arena. He walked past Soundwave, motioning slowly over to Megatron.

<<In this corner! The reigning champion! The king of the arena! The undefeated! The unstoppable! MEGATRONUS!!>> As the recorded crowd cheered, the conglomeration of cloned bots also started cheering, whistling and hooting, throwing their arms up and clapping. Soundwave’s counterpart lowered his arm, raising the other to point at Soundwave now. <<And in this corner! A fellow undefeated combatant>> the audio seemed to glitch suddenly, like something was skipped; <<SOUNDWAAAAVE!!!>> The crowd cheered again, but not as loud as they did with Megatron.

This… Did not bode well.

<<Remember gladiators, we want a nice, ENTERTAINING fight! May the best bot survive!>> Soundwave’s darker counterpart began stepping back, his already extended arm now moving to be in front of him, raised high in the air; <<BEGIN!>> With that he brough his arm down, kicking himself back to slide into the safety of the crowd.

Soundwave locked eyes with Megatron, waiting. Waiting for Megatron to roar loudly, or shoot, or charge at him in an attack. Megatron didn’t move, simply observed Soundwave before taking his stance. His right arm was tucked up towards his head, a blade extending from just beneath his cannon, pointing at Soundwave; his left arm was leading, held in front of him with servo open.

If he wasn’t going to strike first, then Soundwave would take the initiative. He usually preferred the element of surprise, but his speed would have to do for now. Soundwave began charging up his sonic cannons; with all his focus on that, they quickly reached their peak power output. He threw his arms back, releasing an unseen force that launched him forward at Megatron; faster than any bot could run; resulting in the bots behind him falling back, sprawling across the deck, knocked off balance and likely dealing with some internal signal disruption. One might have nearly fallen off, but he should have known better than to stand so close to the edge of a flying ship.

Soundwave flew forward, aimed at his opponent. He intended to grab Megatron, hitting his chest plate and knocking him over with a tackle; except that didn’t happen. Megatron was not surprised by his speed, instead he braced for the impact; the slightest shift in his stance the only indication of his intent. He was plotting to grab Soundwave himself, likely to pin and force him to yield, or to throw him into something.

Soundwave wouldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let that happen.

Soundwave repositioned himself, slamming his pedes into the deck, screeching metal burning his audials as he slowed. He held his hands low, palms open, charging his sonic cannons slowly. His power would be divided, but that was necessary. He charged up his shoulder cannon, the purple energy gathering obvious when compared to the weapons embedded in his servos. Megatron’s eyes darted to the light, an unfortunate instinct from the war: Always be on the lookout for plasma weapons. Megatron rotate his right arm, turning the blade flat to act as a shield, or a way to deflect the blow. Soundwave smiled behind his visor.

Got you~!

Soundwave redirected the majority of his energy to his palms, the purple glow fizzling out in a small, electrical “pop!” Soundwave swung his hands up in a palm strike, unleashing a point-blank blast at near full power to Megatron’s lower abdomen. Soundwave caught a glimpse of Megatron’s shocked expression before the two were sent skidding apart from the blast; Soundwave sent back towards the middle of the ring, while Megatron was nearly sent into the crowd. Megatron dug his pedes into the deck, leaving deep gashes in his wake. The sound was horrific enough that Soundwave winced, shaking his head to refocus.

Megatron still stood.

Megatron shook his head, fist and dentae clenched as his optics flickered, dilating in and out of focus before he finally regained control of them, optics locked on Soundwave.

Sonic Weaponry. Old, like Knock Out said. Very old. Too old for the shields to be of any use. They are meant to absorb blows from our more advanced weaponry. This is a matter that must be solved later. Megatron stared at Soundwave, making a mental note. From what he could see, it had been a simple palm strike; the components were likely hidden somewhere in the smaller bot’s arms. The red disks? No, too high up. They would result in am omnidirectional blast, and a weak one at that. Then that left just beneath the palms. Yes, he could see it. Lines that didn’t belong, transformation seams; usually so easy to ignore, they were concealing sonic weaponry.

Megatron chided himself, he had expected this bot to fight the same way his own Soundwave did; almost like it was a dance rather than a fight. It was a mistake in need of immediate correction. Still, it had been so long since he fought a bot that used such methods. Most sonic weapons had been phased out because they weren’t “flashy” enough for the arena. However, he supposed they had their charm. The Resonance Blaster that his own Soundwave had recently grabbed was one such weapon. Once this smaller Soundwave fell in line, that weapon would be perfect in his servos.

“An interesting trick, my small friend.” He chuckled, eyes narrowing; “but if tricks were all it took to defeat me, Starscream would have taken my place long ago!” Megatron stormed towards Soundwave, steps deliberate but fast.

Soundwave watched with growing horror as Megatron suddenly jumped, kicking off the ground into a spin. A kick? Negative. Too obvious. WAIT! Soundwave ducked back as Megatron brought down his sword, the very tip of the blade scratching his mask and visor. He was fast for his size, unexpected given his earlier behavior. Soundwave realized too late this was what Megatron had wanted, a feign for another strike while there was an opening. His left pede was pulled up, a glint from the sun bouncing off the battle-worn metal was the only warning Soundwave got before it slammed into his chest covering. It was far harder than expected, the internal components creaking from the force.

He didn’t like that noise. Bad noise, bad noise, bad noise, bad noise…

A gasp escaped the smaller bot, his limp form flying back; the crowd of onlookers barely moved fast enough to not become collateral damage. Slamming against the deck hard, Soundwave’s body was sent bouncing from the impact; paint scraping off, leaving a small trail along the deck, evidence of his crash. Alerts and warnings began to fill his HUD, telling him about all the possible points of damage. The most concerning was the one about his docking compartment and shoulders. Scrap.

Soundwave clenched his servos and grit his dentae as he grimaced. Focus. Must Focus. Can’t get Ravage. Can’t get Laserbeak. Can’t get Frenzy. Just. YOU. He forced himself to his hands and knees, observing the damage to his chest. A huge dent was in the middle of the door, slightly askew and paint missing from the force of the kick. Soundwave wanted to reach up and touch it. He hadn’t felt like this since… since… No one’s in there. You’re all alone now.

FOCUS!

Now wasn’t the time to remember that. Soundwave looked up, finally registering the thunderous steps growing louder. A targeting alert popped up on his visor, just a little too late; Megatron’s pede slammed into him again, hitting his abdomen; hooking under his docking compartment and throwing him into the air. Soundwave’s servos scrabbled at the deck as he was kicked, processor sluggish to register that nothing was there for him to grab.

Soundwave looked up. Up? Down? Directions didn’t matter at this point. He had been launched high, high enough that he could count the rings of Decepticons on the deck. He was still limp, body spinning as he ascended. Every fiber, ever line, every joint hurt. This Megatron hit so much harder than Him. He still held back when fighting Decepticons, some sort of pathetic attempt at mercy. This one wanted to beat a lesson into him, like He would beat lessons into Starscream. Even now, Soundwave knew this Megatron was watching him, eagerly waiting for when he fell back to the ship; whether that was to strike or lecture Soundwave, he was unsure. Soundwave just needed a plan, something other than attacking like he did with Him. He needed to keep an optic on Megatron, needed to know how to fix this, needed to-

He was falling now, head first back towards the deck of the Nemesis. The sun at his back, the rear of the ship his only view. No, there was something there. Flickering through the clouds as they reconnected in the wake of the ship. His mind calmed. He wasn’t alone. He was never alone.

There, covered by the clouds was a hawk. Not an Earth hawk, as a fool might guess from this distance. A Cybertronian hawk. Hot Rod’s Lazerbeak! There, trailing behind the ship. But something was wrong, perplexingly so. He should be closer. Why would he be that far away?

Soundwave looked at the ship now, mind finally calm enough to think. He looked over every detail, analyzing each one in a fraction of a second, regardless of how miniscule they were. Every bot in the crowd was logged; from the massive ones with sharp teeth, to the vehicons with their two distinct variations, to the sniveling bot with the smug smirk, to his own counterpart with his screen-like mask. The deck, with its multiple scratches indicating failed landings, the walls with their hastily repaired dents, the vents spewing metal-melting hot air from the engines, to the satellites at the rear of the ship-

The Satellites! A significant swath of the ship’s rear was covered in a huge array of satellites. He knew some were used to scan for Cybertronian signals – how else would they know when Autobots showed up – but there were too many for all of them to be dedicated to just that task alone. The rest had to be dedicated to keeping the ship cloaked, and likely had some other scrambling ability connected to them. He had designed the very same system, once upon a time.

Soundwave was halfway back to the deck now, a plan forming in his processor. One shot. He only had one shot at this. If he failed he’d almost certainly be killed; or worse, imprisoned in stasis. He hoped this ship didn’t have anything like that on board.

He took a deep breath, righting himself. He shut his optics for a brief moment.

And Transformed.

Megatron wanted him to fly? He. Would. Fly.

Megatron watched with a smirk as the smaller bot was sent flying into the air. This Soundwave was far lighter and far weaker than he had expected; there was no buzz of a shield to be felt when their blows connected. This was fine though; “I could use the target practice.” Starscream had a nasty habit of running, and this bot would make for excellent training for hitting a target that lacked control. He aimed his cannon, waiting patiently until Soundwave began his descent. One shot, just one shot and this petty tantrum would be over. Then the small bot would be taken back to the medical bay. Knock out would either patch up Soundwave, or dissect him to his spark’s content, studying the technology hidden within the blue bot. He caught the glimmer of Soundwave’s visor; he was looking at the deck. He had a plan.

Good. He still had plenty of fight.

Megatron’s fingers curled as he fired his cannon, stance wide to account for the power of the superheated plasma that flew through the air. The shot barely missed as Soundwave transformed, gliding past the underside of his hull and hurtling off into the atmosphere. He raised his arm, ducking slightly as Soundwave dove down, sweeping close to the deck and firing off a few shots of his own in a strafing run. Most missed, but two were lucky enough to connect; the first burning through his shield, while the second left a blackened scorch mark on his shoulder.

They were pathetically weak, clearly meant to overwhelm the enemy rather than do actual damage. They would be effective against humans though. Megatron looked up, watching as Soundwave performed acrobatics to turn around, ready for another run. The fool is going to stay in the air? Fine then, Megatron would follow. He smirked, shifting his weight low before he broke into a sprint; charging past the ring of ‘Cons, those that did not move fast enough were shoved out of his way. He dug his pede into the edge of the flight deck, leaping off and transforming. His prey would not escape.

The two shot past each other, Megatron rolling left while Soundwave rolled right. They missed by mere centimeters, the air between them crackling with conflicting air currents. He would have laughed had he still been in the arena. This was what he loved; the thrill of the chase, the desperation of his enemy resulting in them finally taking the fight seriously. This was the purist form of combat. This is entertainment!

Flipping around, Megatron gave chase to the Small Soundwave. His quarry was flying low to the deck, just barely skimming over the heads of the vehicons; some who were unsure of his skill ducked, while the much larger Insecticons had to drop to their knees or transform to avoid being decapitated by the wide, flat jet. Megatron tracked Soundwave as he began to climb back into the air, more than likely plotting to turn around to strike at him again; holding onto some vain hope of one of the shot penetrating Megatron’s shields and actually injuring him.

That wouldn’t work.

Even now, Megatron could see how slow this Soundwave was; slow enough that he left no trace of where he was in the sky. It would be his downfall; as Megatron followed him, creeping closer and closer. It was like chasing after one of those pathetic humans the Autobots clung to so dearly. He fired a few blasts from the smaller guns his alt mode carried, forcing the smaller bot to waste more time dodging and lose precious distance as they finally broke through the ash clouds.

Just a bit closer. A little bit closer, and he could transform; dragging this Soundwave through the dust, forcing him into the dirt and pumice. He would yield then, and fall in line.

Another volley of shots had this Soundwave performing a barrel roll to dodge them, soaring up into the air; underside to the Nemesis and ash clouds, soaring closer to the volcanic mountain the huge ship was currently stationed near. Megatron would concede to one thing: This Smaller Soundwave would have been quite popular in the arena. His many dives and rolls to avoid the various stone and shots were flashy enough to earn a lot of praise, plus his agility and unique frame would only make him more popular; he’d have gotten quite a few sponsorships and possibly been backed by a senator.

None of that would save him here, he was far too slow to escape Megatron now.

He could hear his troops cheering for him, excited for his victory. The Insecticons howling their war cries, the vehicons roaring in approval; even Starscream’s shrill praise could be heard. He knew his own Soundwave was recording everything, taking pleasure in being able to bear witness to Megatron’s skill once more. It gave him a small seed of satisfaction, being able to fight like this. Far too many of his minions were either too weak or too cowardly to meet him head-on.

It was such a pity he’d have to put an end to this game soon.

Megatron put all his power into his engines, quickly closing the distance between him and this Soundwave; he was right on the small bot’s jets. He began to climb into the clouds again, followed closely by Megatron.

One more second, and he would end this Soundwave’s little tantrum. He could imagine it; the ‘Cons leaning forward, knowing the end was nigh, his own Soundwave focusing in on him and his prey. The world seemed to slow as he lined up his shot-

- If he were in his base mode, his eyes would have widened in surprise as Soundwave suddenly angled upwards, thrusters burning against Megatron’s shield as he vanished from the larger bot’s sightline due to his sudden drop in speed. Megatron barely had enough time to dodge, turning just in time to see Soundwave falling back into the ash clouds just beneath the ship, between the cloud layers they used to hide the Nemesis from sight.

Megatron hissed out a disgruntled growl. It was certainly a clever trick, but all it did was draw out the fight and delay the inevitable. He blasted off, right back into the acidic smoke; not stopping even when it began to choke his vents. He saw it, the tail of the smaller bot. Internally, Megatron grinned, speeding up until he burst through the clouds. He was gone? No sign of where the small bot has scurried off to. Megatron transformed back into his base form, landing on one of the many spikes that decorated his ship. He looked out, glaring into the clouds, then down to the ashy storm below.

He sent out a quiet, inquisitive radar scan, hoping to ping something. He knew he needed to account for all the ash and dust, but even with those factors accounted for, he got nothing in return. Nothing but the dust, his troops, and the Nemesis itself. Soundwave was… gone.

No cloaking. No energy spike. No ground bridge. Just gone.

Megatron stood there, waiting, scanning the clouds. With another disgruntled growl he let go of the spike and transformed again, diving into the clouds and listening. He could hear the wind parting as he flew, the chimes of ash particles bouncing off his plating, the hum of the Nemesis above him. If he could not see Soundwave, then he would listen for him; nothing was untraceable, not even-

Megatron’s thoughts were cut short as a barrage of laser fire suddenly struck his cannon; tearing through his shield, nailing his wings, leaving a small tear near the tip, tinted purple from the small energon lines that had been scratched. He pulled up sharply, rolling to right himself, firing blindly into the ash cloud, searching for any trace of his opponent. Nothing? Wait… Nothing!

If Megatron had been in his base form, his eyes would have widened, realizing multiple things about his foe at once. Once again, he had made a mistake in need of immediate correction.

This Soundwave was slow, that much was obvious, but what was not so obvious was the three main benefits of that slowness:

1) His engines wouldn’t be as aloud as those of a regular bot. When placed next to a ship like the Nemesis or the roaring bubbles of an active volcano, he would be nearly silent.

Another barrage of laser forced – yes forced – Megatron to dive down and out of the way; the low, denser ash choking his vents further.

2) He wouldn’t run as hot as other bots, meaning no thermal signature; or at least one that didn’t stand out as much.

Once more, a burst of laser fire came from somewhere in the storm; Megatron catching little more than a glimpse of the smaller bot as he flew past, only able to do so because his blue paint stood out against the grey and black clouds.

And 3) He wouldn’t create a cloud trail to follow.

The perfect design for stealth.

Soundwave was more than pleased with himself as he flew through the clouds. The storm was perfect. Megatron may have experience when it came to fighting one-on-one, but Soundwave doubted this Megatron had ever met anyone with skills like his; little skirmishes before vanishing without a trace. He just had to keep reminding himself, this wasn’t That Traitor; no mercy would be provided to him if he lost. This Megatron wanted to teach him a lesson, wanted to prove a point, wanted Soundwave to prove his worth.

He’d had to do this before; prove his worth to the other Decepticons and to That Traitor; once, long ago. A simple statement was enough to do so back then, earned him a roll where his talents could shine while leaving plenty of room to climb even higher.

So many bots thought he was just a pretty frame; with only a few tricks tucked between his manifolds. That was the same mistake this Megatron was making, chasing phantoms in the smoke and ash, while Soundwave continued with his plan.

Soundwave dove down, unleashing a barrage of lasers at Megatron, the larger bot’s shield fizzing and crackling out, allowing a few of the shots to strike his cannon and front; before Soundwave was gliding back into the clouds, vanishing from sight. He dove down again, diving below the actual clouds to clear his vents for a moment.

“Always keep them guessing. NEVER pull the same stunt twice.”

Sure, he couldn’t see either; any scans he sent out would return with a barrage of irrelevant information. The location of every dust particle, the temperature of the volcano, and the frequency used by The Nemesis. But the clouds? The clouds were his indicator of where his target was. He could see it, clear as day, how Megatron’s mass displaced the normal currents, sending visible ripples and waves through them; like when humans played in water. Humans were cruel, horrible, manipulative creatures; but when it came to building vehicles fit for their planet? Oh, none were better. He shuddered, thinking of what such creatures could do if they got their tiny hands on a ship like The Nemesis. They had already proved they’d do anything to get their hands on Cybertronians, and would do anything to have said bots under their command; anything they did to The Nemesis would only benefit them.

Another barrage, targeting Megatron’s underside, forced the larger bot to roll midair; else the shields around his thrusters would be disabled and the actual components liable to damage.

“That’s it, Soundwave~! We must make it look convincing! We’re almost ready now, just a little longer, I promise.”

Soundwave pulled the plan to the front of his processor; his preparations were almost complete. One more minute, and everything would be ready. A new question popped up now: How would he execute it? It had to look convincing, but making it look like he wasn’t just throwing the fight because he got too cocky was the issue. He needed some way to bait this trap, it was just unfortunate his target was a Megatron with extensive combat experience.

Soundwave arced through the clouds, diving straight down at Megatron. The position drew a memory from his databanks; a pink Autobot jumping from somewhere, grappling onto him as he attempted to get rid of that stupid yellow scout. A pink Autobot who could break boulders with a single kick, and who nearly reset him with such a move. He remembered her all too well now. Would such a move work for him? It was certainly unexpected. It was also very stupid. Did he have a better plan? NOPE. But, as the GHOST agents say before doing something stupid:

“Fuck it.”

He accelerated, diving towards Megatron faster, aiming for center mass of his target. Soundwave transformed again, his pede slamming down against where Megatron’s head was tucked into his current form; sliding back slightly due to the uneven surface. Soundwave knelt down, digging a servo into a random seam to hold himself in place before punching once at Megatron’s head before digging into another seam. Low vibrations rang out from both his palms, slipping through the shields that Megatron so desperately relied on. It would hurt, and that would be enough that Megatron wouldn’t question what Soundwave was doing; wouldn’t know what his true plan was.

PAIN. From his helm to his chest, intense pain. Soundwave had once again started using his sonic weapons, pitching the tone in such a way to make sure the vibrations would continue even after the source was removed. Megatron’s optics grew fuzzy, not because he was dizzy, but because they kept trying to refocus themselves; only for it to be made pointless by the constant vibrations. A simple, but problematic side effect when hit by sonic weapons.

More than likely, this Soundwave was trying to destabilize him, cause him to crash into the volcano with how the smaller bot’s pede was digging into Megatron’s frontal plating. In all likelihood, Megatron would survive, but it was better to not chance it; not now.

It was unfortunate for Soundwave that Megatron’s radar still worked just fine, and he had a good sense of direction. It was even more unfortunate that Megatron had a plan, and knew exactly where he wanted to go.

He took off, speeding towards one of the many spikes that decorated The Nemesis. He rolled and spiraled, just in case that managed to dislodge the smaller bot. Finally, said bot seemed to realize what Megatron’s plan was, looking up just in time to be smacked in the abdomen by the decoration. Megatron flew to another spike, transforming; digging his blade into the surface as he landed on it to observe his opponent. Soundwave was sliding down, scrabbling at the spike to stop himself from falling into the volcano.

Megatron chuckled as Soundwave finally stopped himself; pedes dangling in the air, hanging on by the thinnest part. The small bot was clearly frightened, struggling to pull himself back up, back to relative safety. Megatron jumped off the spike, transforming once again, charging at the hanging bot. He saw Soundwave’s visor brighten in surprise moments before the two collided; Soundwave letting out a grunt of pain as he clung helplessly onto Megatron.

The larger bot began to fly among the spikes of The Nemesis before ducking around the side, climbing higher and higher above the deck. Megatron aimed down and transformed once more; grabbing Soundwave’s leg, denting the plating before launching the helpless bot into the flight deck. He didn’t bounce this time, instead just slammed into the metal with enough force to dent said deck.

Megatron landed a few steps away, the force clearing a circle of ash around him. He smirked, casually striding forward.

Then he felt it.

A strange shaking traveling up his pedes, throwing him off ever so slightly. The smaller, weaker Vehicons began to shake their heads, stumbling and tripping despite not walking anywhere; the insecticons began grabbing their heads, low warbles coming from them while other began hitting themselves as if trying to dislodge something painful. Soundwave, his Soundwave, was standing perfectly still, not even the slightest sway in his frame. Starscream looked around; optics wide in panic, his wings visibly shaking. Megatron turned his attention back to the source of the problem; he knew this move, it had been used on him once before, long ago. He would not fall for it again. He hurried his approach, drawing his blade once more. He would end this now.

He slammed his pede down on Soundwave’s chest, holding his prey in place before diving his blade into the pinned bot’s shoulder. A wailing, pained, metallic screeching; the same noise from before; came from the bot. The rattling finally stopped, the limp form of the small bot lay in the crater, visor cracked and mask chipped in various places from the battle. Megatron withdrew his blade, stepping back off the bot’s chest. He reached down, grabbing Soundwave’s head before lifting him into the air.

Soundwave clawed at the servo gripping his face. This was bad. So, so, so horribly bad. Megatron easily lifted him off the ground, his pedes kicking weakly.

“I must at least give praise to your attempts. Trying to destabilize my equilibrium by hitting the ship? Quite creative.” He paused, tightening his grip on Soundwave’s head; “But it is a trick I have seen before, so it is ultimately useless.”

Soundwave’s visor flashed, a white line bouncing back and forth as he rewound an audio file. A chorus of voices suddenly came from his speakers; singing that stupid, annoyingly catchy song: “Draw the enemy’s eye away! then boom bang! Ruin their day!” Megatron stared in clear confusion. He chuckled; Soundwave either sounded giddy like a sparkling, or like a mad bot with a corrupted processor.

“Draw the enemy’s eye away! then boom bang! Ruin their day!” Soundwave repeated the file; he had to hold Megatron’s attention. Had to make sure everyone was staring at him, listening to him. “Draw the enemy’s eye away! then boom bang!”

Soundwave heard that sniveling bot screech out Megatron’s name, the giant bot’s eyes widening as a green light outlined him. He turned – just in time to get punched by Starscream and Hot Rod – dropping Soundwave to the deck, stumbling back from the force of the combined blow. Frenzy jumped off Hot Rod, running over to Soundwave; Laserbeak and Ravage following close behind.

“Ruin their day!” Frenzy chimed in, laughing as she climbed onto Soundwave’s shoulders, patting his helm while Ravage twined around his arms, purring loudly; “Good job Soundwave! You remembered!”

Soundwave rolled his eyes and shook his head. Everything hurt, and he wouldn’t have been able to keep up the fight much longer. Though, the physical pain didn’t really compare to the mental pain of the stupid song. “Unfortunately.” He hissed. She chuckled again, patting his head once more before hopping off his shoulders as he stood up, dusting himself off. Hot Rod and Starscream moved in between him and Megatron, ready to take his place in the fight.

The large bot shook his head, glaring at the two bots who had just punched him. “My optics must be deceiving me. Autobots and Decepticons? Working together?” Megatron was looking at all six of them, optics darting to focus on the symbols decorating the three regular-sized bots; the symbols of two different factions that were usually busy killing each other. He paused, a small smirk coming to his face as he lowered his head. His frame shuddered, head swaying from side-to-side as a low, ominous chuckle came from deep in his chest, before he threw his head back in a vicious – almost maniacal – laugh. “First, a second Soundwave appears; then a Decepticon and an Autobot plan to face me, brothers in arms! This must be a bad comedy!”

“This is no comedy, Megatron.” A new voice rang out, one that Megatron clearly knew.

Chapter Text

“This is no comedy, Megatron.”

Soundwave’s plating rattled. The voice that rang out was powerful; commanding respect, in a way that Soundwave was all too familiar with. The bot it was attached to though, was someone Soundwave would never follow.

Optimus Prime.

Soundwave turned to glare at him, only to be taken aback by his appearance. He was much larger than the Prime that Soundwave was used to, and he clearly had more strength and weaponry; yet the way he carried himself. This Prime seemed far less… hostile, for lack of a better word. His optics were far more intense, scanning the deck and taking note of every bot present, but there was no hatred or malice in them. More like… Disappointment. The kind of disappointment that Soundwave had seen many times before. Disappointment over someone doing something that you don’t agree with, that you want them to stop, but know they won’t. A pat on his right leg drew his attention, Frenzy giving him a thumbs-up and small smile. Ravage curled herself around his left leg, hissing loudly at Megatron. Laserbeak landed on a satellite nearby, the other Lazerbeak landing near him with a shriek; both of them just observing for now.

Optimus Prime stood tall, nodding briefly to Soundwave; “You did well. We thank you for all you’ve done; however, this is not your battle.” He stepped forward then, in front of the trio and cassettes, a blade extending from his arm. “This Megatron is our problem.”

Hot Rod and Starscream looked at each other, Starscream smirking while Hot Rod scowled. “Uh, Optimus.” The Prime glanced at Hot Rod, clearly unwilling to turn his back on Megatron; “As much as we appreciate that, Megatron made the mistake of kidnapping one of ours. Personally, I have a bit of a problem with that.”

“And I don’t really care which version of Megatron it is. I can’t really resist a chance to give him the old what-for.” Starscream’s grin was full of malice as he locked onto Megatron.

“Over my snuffed spark!” The sniveling bot from before suddenly shrieked, storming towards Megatron, standing towards his side. “My lord, if you would…please allow me…” He sounded like he was laughing, to a certain degree; “I will take care of these… pesky intruders. You should focus on Prime, after all.” He spoke with wild – yet calculated – hand gestures, motioning to himself and the small group with a dramatic flourish.

It irked Soundwave; he too had performed in such a way. Once.

Megatron nodded; a small, dismissive wave sent the sniveling bot’s way. “Do as you please, Starscream. Prime is mine.”

The sniveling bot – apparently this world’s Starscream – suddenly raised his arm at Soundwave. “With pleasure, my lord.” He fired; a rocket shooting towards Soundwave.

The Starscream Soundwave was familiar with suddenly raised his own arm, firing his null-ray at the missile. The two collided, exploding in fantastic fashion. Soundwave ducked down, covering Ravage and Frenzy from the blast. He heard rather than saw a bot running, hearing a shriek from the very pointy Starscream before catching him transforming and taking off.

Starscream laughed, transforming and taking off after the metallic version of himself; “COWARD! AT LEAST I HAD THE COURAGE TO FIGHT MY BATTLES HEAD-ON, LIKE A TRUE DECEPTICON!”

Soundwave shook his head. It was a fair point, Starscream never did hide his distain for Megatron. Part of Soundwave wondered if things would have turned out different had the jet ever succeeded in a coup. As loathe as he was to admit it, Starscream was a decent enough leader; at least since Megatron’s betrayal.

Soundwave looked back to the portal, which had disappeared now. Along with a majority of Decepticons that Soundwave knew, there were three Autobots: A huge green bot with maces for fists; a lithe, blue femme, who would give Soundwave a run for his money in terms of drawing attention; and Bumblebee, Prime’s favorite scout. He could never mistake that distinctive yellow paint for anyone else.

Optimus had clearly been thinking during this time, the sound of his mask snapping into place causing Soundwave to flinch. “We end this now Megatron.”

The scout approached Soundwave, helping him up, as said scout looked down at Frenzy and Ravage before glancing nervously at Soundwave’s silent counterpart. He didn’t notice the Scout’s optics darting down to the other’s Laserbeak, expression falling.

Megatron stood still for a moment, optics flickering up and down as he sized up Optimus Prime. Finally he locked optics with Optimus, raising his bladed arm before roaring loudly; “Decepticons! Annihilate these intruders!”

Chaos.

Soundwave had never been on the receiving end of a Decepticon charge, and he never once thought he would be on the receiving end of a Decepticon charge. But now he was, and he was suddenly aware of how suicidally stupid the Autobots of this universe were; the four bots meeting the wave of Decepticons without flinching. The giant green one ran forward, knocking back a couple of Vehicons before he transformed suddenly, charging further into the thickest crowd of Vehicons, moving with surprising grace as he spun in vehicle form. He transformed mid-spin, grabbing a nearby Vehicon by the torso, slamming the weaker bot down while his free hand turned from a mace into a blaster. He stood up, slamming his pede down on the prone vehicon, firing off shot after shot at any insecticons that lunged at him; his servo transforming into a mace to swat away more Vehicons.

The blue femme was equally fierce, and actually distracting Soundwave with how beautiful her combat skills were. She was ducking and weaving almost every attack that came her way, those that she couldn’t were little more than glancing blows that didn’t seem to bother her at all. She held off attacking until she was near the outermost ring of Decepticons, firing her shots so precisely that Soundwave felt a prickle of jealousy. Every Vehicon she hit was sent backwards over the edge of the ship, only a few of them having the right vehicle form to fly back up and join the fight. He shook the feeling away, no need for it, he could just ask her to train with him back on the Guiding Light.

At the center of the fight were the two leaders: Optimus Prime and Megatron. Blades clashing, it was clear the two of them were evenly matched; a wide swath of the deck free of the chaos as bots tried to avoid them. One unlucky Vehicon was thrown into range of the two leader, swiftly grabbed by Megatron and thrown at Optimus, who easily avoided it.

In the sky, Starscream fought his counterpart. Soundwave had never been great at flying, but Starscream was on a whole other level; diving through the clouds, flipping overhead his counterpart to get behind him, using his lasers to avoid his counterpart’s missiles; it was pure beauty. Holes were left in the clouds from their paths, missile and explosive trails weaving across each other like some chaotic network of tubes; shrapnel raining down on the ship, leaving dents and burn marks where they landed.

Then there was the Scout; standing in front of Soundwave, slicing through any bots that got too close to Soundwave and his cassettes; not that it was actually needed. His first priority was grabbing Ravage and Frenzy, yanking them into the air before tossing them towards higher ground. “Stay over there!” He acted at just the right time, a huge insecticon slamming into Bumblebee, dragging the scout away from Soundwave and deeper into the fight.

“Don’t have to tell us twice!”

“YOU THREW ME?!”

“I’m in trouble.” He grit his dentae together, cringing.

Hot Rod was suddenly next to him, decking a bot that had come up behind Soundwave before flames shot out of the exhaust pipe on his arms. He apparently heard Soundwave’s mumbling; “What’s wrong?”

Soundwave shook his head, punching a vehicon that tried to charge him. “Not important. What is important is that we get this ship grounded.”

Hot Rod chuckled, “So long as you’re not dying on me.” He grabbed a vehicon that charged them, throwing the bot across the deck and knocking over several other bots. “Want to see something cool?”

Soundwave nodded, palm-striking another bot, sending the creature flying. Not that it seemed to bother the bot, as it transformed; wings thundering through the air as he took off for a different target. “Sure.”

“Awesome.” Flames suddenly burst from his exhaust pipes, forcing several bots back. “I need you to aim at the door, and use your sonic blasts in that direction.”

“That’s it?”

“Trust the process.” Hot Rod was smirking, clearly excited for whatever his plan was. Soundwave sighed, charging up his sonic cannons.

“Desired power level?”

“Not deadly to you.”

Max power it was. “This will take a minute.” Hot Rod hummed, more flames surrounding them as they fought. Soundwave couldn’t be certain, but it seemed like the autoboot was trying to protect him while he charged up. “Ready.”

Hot Rod’s smirk seemed to turn malicious, “Let’s go!”

Soundwave fired at the door; the concussive blast knocking back vehicons and insecticons alike. Those in the direct path had energon pop from their seams and joints; at least for a second. Soundwave jolted as fire suddenly swirled along the blast, incinerating any bot unfortunate enough to be in the path, leaving scorch marks on those that were fortunate enough to be knocked away.

The door, unsurprisingly, stood no chance; the metal flying inward before crashing into a wall with a resounding cacophony.

“YES!” Hot Rod’s cry of victory was interrupted by a laser striking him, nearly knocking him down, leaving a starburst scorch mark on his shoulder. Soundwave looked up, optics widening, ducking down as the far pointier Laserbeak dove at him, chirping past. Hot Rod glared up at the bird, “Beaky! You’re up!”

“Laserbeak!”

“On it!”

Soundwave helped Hot Rod up as the two Laserbeaks gave chase to the metallic one; joining both Starscreams in dog-fighting their counterpart.

“Operation: Chaos.”

“Stop that.”

Soundwave stopped himself from chuckling, all three of the cassettes scolding him for his “command”. He found himself locking optics with his own counterpart. At least, he thought he did. It was really hard to tell. Soundwave was suddenly shoved forward, tripping and falling to the deck; glancing back, he saw a huge insecticon trying to bite Hot Rod’s head. He was about to help the Autobot when said bot shoved his entire arm into the insecticon’s maw and fired; flames spewing from the beast as it reared back, shrieking in pain before darting off.

“Soundwave! You know the tech, get in there and help the others!” Hot Rod ordered, dragging Soundwave to stand up and pushing him towards the gaping hole in the wall. “GO!”

Soundwave took off down the corridors, running through the dark halls. He paused, suddenly realizing who those “others” likely were. He grumbled to himself before taking off again, hopeful that at least Hashtag was amongst the group; she was the most capable of them all as far as he was concerned.

Chapter Text

Starscream knew he had to be present on this ship, and even before Megatron gave the order, something in him told him it was the sniveling bot that had shrieked the tyrant’s name when he and Hot Rod came through the portal – or, Ground Bridge, as the Autobots called it. He couldn’t explain it; something in his very spark compelled him to face the metallic coward that was this universe’s version of himself. He had run through the acrid smoke of the explosion to punch this pointy version of himself, only getting in one glancing blow before his counterpart took off with an insulted gasp, transforming with a flourish.

Starscream couldn’t stop himself from laughing; “COWARD! AT LEAST I HAD THE COURAGE TO FIGHT MY BATTLES HEAD-ON, LIKE A TRUE DECEPTICON!” He transformed, pursuing his chosen opponent. It wasn’t covered in the plan, but it probably went without saying: The Decepticon High Command of this universe were not to be killed. It was weird and made the Guiding Light Decepticons uneasy.

Well, it was either that or Hot Rod’s lack of caring over his own death in this universe.

Starscream rolled to the right, avoiding an oncoming barrage, his counterpart whizzing past him, nearly vertical as he tried to get behind Starscream. It worked, the metallic bot firing another barrage of missiles at Starscream; likely tracking him based off his energy signature. They were bound to be similar to the types of missiles he used. It was a pathetic attempt of an attack, born from desperate anger rather than an actual attempt to win.

“I WILL SEND YOU TO THE SCRAP HEAP, YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A SEEKER!”

Nope, just anger.

Starscream angled his wings, cutting one engine while boosting the other to full power, allowing him to spiral in a perfect 180; the wind tearing at his plating, threatening to pull him apart from the G forces. In a split second he registered all the missiles aimed at him, mind going back to the night that Megatron had attacked Twitch and her family. Both his engines roared to life at maximum output, sending him flying towards the barrage; firing his guns, at least one shot hit each missile – some did miss, skirting past his counterpart – the weapons exploding in a flash of blinding light. The Shrapnel arced outwards, painting the sky with beautiful star-like bursts as the debris fell to the ground and ship below, leaving spiraling smoke trails in their wake.

He dove through the smoke of the explosion, slightly more acrid than the ash and dust the surrounded The Nemesis. This is why Starscream loved to explore; the beauty of life was everywhere, even in a battle where somebot was trying to kill you.

Megatron had never seen it that way; instead viewing combat as nothing more than a way to enforce control, reinforce power, or to sharpen one’s skill. Even the Terrans were beautiful in their own way; preferring peace to combat, showing kindness to all regardless of what symbol they wore, giving them second and third chances, and being unafraid of helping those in need – even if the recipient didn’t know they needed help. They were all so kind, and hopeful, and-

Starscream dropped suddenly, no longer covered by the smoke due to his sudden descent. His counterpart was firing at him, missing him despite Starscream being distracted by a realization: He wanted to protect the Terrans. He had never really felt the urge to protect something so fiercely before, that sort of savagery usually only found in the core programming of Carrier-class bots. Wanted to protect them from the horrors of war, from the cruelty of Megatron, from the desire for power that must be innate in every Prime.

He transformed, flying under The Nemesis, weaving his way through the jagged angles and deadly spikes as the other Starscream chased him. He had to focus right now, these feelings would be pointless if he lost this battle with his metallic counterpart.

Starscream perched on one of the spikes, he just needed a moment. One moment to figure out a weakness of this version of himself, one moment to think of a plan. The only time he ever stood a chance against That Traitor was when he came up with a plan. Well, the experience in the tunnels not counting. Starscream ducked to the other side of the protruding piece of metal, dodging a barrage from his counterpart.

“YOU CALL ME A COWARD?! LOOK WHO’S HIDING NOW!”

Starscream rolled his optics. This version of himself seemed blind to the bigger picture, believing he was better despite still putting up with Megatron’s abuse.

Megatron…

A cruel smile came to Starscream as he finally formulated a plan. If there was one thing he knew about himself, it was his utter disgust for Megatron. And besides… He was never one to accept being second in anything. Starscream poked his helm out from cover, locking in on his counterpart; “I’M NOT THE ONE STILL BOWING AND SCRAPING AT MEGATRON’S PEDES!” with that, he jumped from his perch; spiraling for a moment before transforming. He had to show exactly how superior he was, after all.

It was no surprise when the metallic copy gave chase, screeching in outrage; something about reducing Starscream to junk or mounting him like a trophy. This version of himself seemed particularly easy to frustrate and infuriate, though, this was the first version of himself he met. Still, that short temper was exactly what he needed as he spiraled through the clouds, arcing around the top of the ship before diving to the deck; missiles following his every move. He transformed, practically dancing along the deck; dodging swung weapons, weaving between smaller brawls, sliding between legs spread wide in a bracing stance. “EVERYONE DOWN!” His counterpart’s missiles, not programmed to handle so many spark signatures in such close proximity, targeted random bots; veering off or spiraling out of control, hitting friend and foe alike with reckless abandon. Most of the bots hit were the tall, slender, cloned bots; none of them expecting one of their own to fire into such a crowded space. Still, one missile followed Starscream, persistent like a starving scraplet. And just like a starving scraplet, he knew precisely where to aim it.

Starscream cackled; half manic excitement, half cloying fear. He rushed to the center of the deck, towards the most intense fight, towards the seemingly eternal rivals: Optimus Prime and Megatron. He was not second-in-command for no reason, the calculations were easy enough, and everything would go perfectly so long as some outside power did not intervene. He launched himself into the air, the missile closing the distance in no time, and he grabbed it. Mustering all the strength in his frame and the power in his thrusters, he forced his will into the mindless rocket, flying towards his target.

Megatron never saw it coming; the missile finally reprogrammed, launched itself at the lumbering Decepticon Leader’s head, point-blank. No time to dodge, no time to fire his canon, no time to put up a shield. Starscream had just enough time to transform and rocket out of the blast zone, the massive bot roaring his name; though if it was in annoyance or anger, he dared not stick around and find out.

Starscream glanced back, just in time to see Optimus Prime slam his fist into Megatron’s face, sending the Decepticon leader staggering. Starscream faltered as he burst into laughter, that was a clip worth saving. He was going to be replaying that for a long time.

His celebration was short.

His counterpart dropped down from above, having transformed back into his base form; taking a page from Starscream’s own book, using the clouds to hide himself while the colorful bot was busy dodging and weaving through the chaos below. He didn’t have time to recover, his counterpart rearing back before stabbing his sharpened digits through Starscream’s plating; talons tearing through the metal like it was paper. Magenta energon flying from the wounds and staining the servos of the bot that had pierced him.

Starscream screeched in pain and surprise, the two bots slamming to the deck; wincing as the back of his head bouncing off the metal surface, the other Starscream yanking his servo free from his opponent. Starscream opened his optics just in time to see his counterpart rearing back for another strike, giving the pinned bot just enough time to roll to the side, saving his spark chamber. His wing was not so lucky.

He glared at his metallic counterpart, gritting his dentae together to avoid screaming in pain. Leaders didn’t let their opponents know when they landed a crippling blow. The taller bot sneered back at him.

“My… humblest apologies… but it seems your time as leader is at an end.” The metallic Starscream mocked; sharp with malice and hostility. “But, do not worry! Once I’m done with you, I will be sure to tell your underlings you fought bravely.” His arm retracted, replaced with a blaster aimed right at Starscream’s head. “Hopefully this won’t hurt.”

Starscream’s optics widened, lines going rigid as he realized what was going to happen.

The way his wing was damaged meant he couldn’t fly, and running away was not an option. He was going to die on some backwater planet in another universe, far away from his Cybertron; away from the skies and cities he loved.

He would have loved to see The Crystal City one last time, with its polished spires and elegantly carved abodes.

The memory files flit through his mind, giving him some peace despite the blaster charging up inches from his face. It would be quick, painless; just one shot to the head and he would be –

A green light called to his optics; behind his counterpart, the reflection bouncing off the metallic wings of the bot over him despite the distance. The green light was almost… familiar.

A Ground Bridge. The Autobot’s Ground Bridge was open, a voice crackling to life over the comms; not the voice of a bot, but the voice of an organic.

“Guiding Light Bots, take cover!”

Agent Fowler’s voice rang out over the comms, giving Starscream just enough time to fire up his thrusters, grinning up at his counterpart; his thrusters knocking his counterpart back as he launched himself into the crowd of bots. A thunderous roar came from above, the bots that didn’t drop to the deck looking up to find the source, only to be shot down as a hailstorm of bullets flew at the deck; the ballistic rounds easily piercing the lesser shields of the cloned bots and insecticons. Those that missed bots left gaping holes and massive dents in the metal surface, piercing through to the lower levels of the ship.

Red electricity crackled in the air, a femme appearing from thin air to join in the fray. “Sorry we’re late to the party, commander!” Skywarp hissed, launching a spinning kick as she landed, knocking over several of the cloned bots. Nova Storm landed beside her, crushing a bot that had been rushing to attack Skywarp as she did so. The two looked to Starscream, the three nodding at each other before the two femmes took to the air once more, joining the strange jet piloted by the organic that just saved Starscream’s spark.

Starscream stood up, watching as the metallic version of himself clung to a wound spilling dull energon. “No worries! Decepticons! Show these inferior versions of us how true Decepticons fight!” Starscream took to the air once more, rising above the chaos.